TEACHER LINGUISTIC, CULTURAL, AND TECHNOLOGICAL AWARENESS DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFER

Congcong Wang

This dissertation includes two studies: a pilot study on native-English-speaking preservice teachers' perceptions of learning a foreign language online and a follow-up study on inservice teachers' perceptions of transferring teacher linguistic, cultural and technological awareness into teaching practice. Conducted in 2010, the pilot study included 35 teacher education students, all of whom took a nine-week Chinese language/culture online course. Data sources included paper-based pre-and-post assessment, online pre-and-post assessment, task products, email correspondence, class discussion and class feedback. The pilot study was intended to explore four research questions: 1. What are the preservice teachers' initial perceptions of a Chinese as a foreign language online course? 2. How do preservice teachers' perceptions of new language online learning experience change as they take the course? 3. What activities do learners perceive as engaging them in the online course? 4. How do preservice teachers say they plan to apply their experience/benefits of the course to their own future classrooms before, during and after the course? The results of the pilot study suggested that 1) new forms of online learning were engaging to teacher-learners with diverse learning styles, prior technological experience, needs and goals; 2) the preservice teachers perceived that online foreign language learning during their teacher education program enhanced their linguistic, cultural and technological awareness; and 3) the participants expressed that they benefited from being prepared to work with linguistic, cultural, and technological diversity in classrooms. However, the pilot study was unclear about whether teachers perceived they transfer their awareness into teaching practice. Therefore, extending the pilot study, the follow-up study conducted in 2012 explored inservice teachers' perceptions of linguistic, cultural and technological awareness transfer. The pilot study suggested three main research questions: 1. What do teachers remember about linguistic, cultural and technological awareness acquired through the foreign language online course taken during their teacher education program? 2. Do teachers perceive that they apply what they learned? In what ways? 3. What challenges do teachers perceive that they encounter in transferring what they learned into their teaching, and how do they overcome the challenges?

TEACHER LINGUISTIC, CULTURAL, AND TECHNOLOGICAL AWARENESS DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFER

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