Raising teachers’ awareness of technology-enhanced language instruction through teacher education: Insights from Scaffolded dialogues

Abstract

Inspired from sociocultural theory, the present research is an interpretive and qualitative study of teachers’ beliefs development through participation in scaffolded dialogues in order to raise their awareness of technology-enhanced language instruction longitudinally. In doing so, 20 teachers, whose informed consent was obtained, were invited to take part in interview sessions three times and join in the sessions of scaffolded dialogues for six months. Classroom observations were also randomly done in order to investigate the relationship between teachers’ theoretical knowledge of technology with their practical understanding of using mobile apps and computer software in the classroom. In addition, the participant teachers’ classroom transcripts were subjected to qualitative investigation through conversation analysis to confirm the findings gathered from observations. Results revealed teachers’ gradual development of their beliefs regarding their “little-to-no awareness of technology” to “relative awareness of technology” and finally toward “raised awareness of technology”. Data gathered from classroom observations highlighted the strong alignment between teachers’ beliefs and actions in using technological devices to create more interaction resulting in the students’ increased self-confidence to take part in doing online tasks. Conversation analysis of teacher-learner interactions verified the findings of classroom observations by concluding that, to a very large extent, teachers’ raised awareness of technology-enhanced instruction was evidenced in the participant teachers’ practice teaching in which they could successfully and consciously apply technological devices in the classroom. As to the implication side, the present study calls for teacher education to familiarize teachers with the most recent theoretical and practical aspects of technology-enhanced instruction by encouraging them to benefit from scaffolded dialogues and share their practice teaching experience for the purpose of quality teaching and learning through technology-mediated classroom.

Keywords:

• scaffolded dialogues
• teachers’ awareness
• teachers’ beliefs
• technology-enhanced instruction

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Helping teachers to be aware of using technology can be an ideal opportunity for teacher educators because teaching through technology has gained sufficient attention in today’s era. This study aims to help teachers be aware of using technology in their classroom and possess the belief that teaching and technology can interact with each other. Such awareness can be achieved by holding the sessions in which colleagues mention their experience of using mobile apps and computer software in their classroom and discuss its positive and negative points. These sessions are called “scaffolded dialogues”. The present study showed that teachers’ beliefs and actions about using technology were in the same direction as scaffolded dialogues could be effective in developing teachers’ beliefs and guiding them to use technological devices in the classroom. Therefore, scaffolded dialogues can be conducted as a teacher education program to raise the teachers’ awareness in a friendly environment.

1. Introduction

Beliefs and English Language Teaching (ELT) have always been two inter-related concepts, demanding more thoughtful attention by belief scholars (Horwitz, 1985; Rokeach, 1968). That teachers believe in a construct in teaching language skills is rooted in their own experiences as language learners apparently (Rifkin, 2000). Teachers’ beliefs have been welcomed in the pioneering research of Horwitz (1985), who aimed to uncover the barriers in the investigation of teachers’ beliefs and how such conception, either reasonable or unreasonable, might play a vital role in the language learners’ success (Muthanna & Karaman, 2011). During teaching experience, teachers’ beliefs might be shaped due to various factors the most important of which lie in the fact that they have been prescribed “what to do” or “what not to do” (Peacock, 2001). This seems to be a taken-for-granted issue in the literature on teachers’ beliefs and the point that how these beliefs, which are strongly recommended to be in alignment with the pedagogic needs of the curriculum, might be ignored by the educational authorities (Sánchez, 2014). In today’s technology-dependent world, it appears to be quite logical to take into account what beliefs teachers hold (Yang & Kim, 2011) about technology and whether the issue has been sufficiently raised in the literature.

Technology-enhanced language instruction has been recognized by ELT scholars since it has been demonstrated to provide practical learning opportunities for language learners (Chapelle, 2001; Corbeil, 2007), resulting in generating more interaction among the learners, which lies at the heart of learning language skills (Apperson et al., 2006; Kukulska-Hulme, 2015). Teaching language skills through technology has well been situated in second and foreign language research (Liu et al., 2014; Nutta, 2013) and teachers’ beliefs are found to be directed to conscious application of apps and software in the classroom (McGuigan & Weil, 2008). Although teachers might find technology-enhanced language instruction facilitative for both teachers and learners to experience more communication learning (Mittal, 2015; Oommen, 2012), the question raised here is the extent to which teachers are thoroughly aware of working with technological devices. In fact, teachers, particularly the experienced ones who have always been teaching in a classroom not equipped with technology-mediated classroom, might consider it challenging to benefit from mobile apps or computer software in the classroom (Rossing et al., 2012). There are also novice teachers who find it problematic to use up-to-date materials and implement them in technology-enhanced instruction due to their shortage of information in this matter (Saito & Akiyama, 2017). Such a conundrum brings about teacher education to take necessary measures in encountering little-to-no awareness regarding the effective application of technology in ELT (Beatty, 2003; Small, 2014). Since teachers are the main directors who guide their learners in being successful language users, their beliefs about technology should theoretically and practically be revisited in order for them to raise their awareness of utilizing technology in the classroom more efficiently. Put it simply, teacher education is in charge of teachers’ teachers’ unresolved questions about technology, aiming to meet ELT needs, directing toward quality teaching and learning.

Teacher education attempts to fulfill ELT requirements by providing expert educators to help teachers act better in orchestrating the classroom interaction (Rodriguez, 2013; Zeichner, 2008). In other words, “better teaching” has been the main objective of teacher education through which teachers can increase their applied knowledge of the target subject and effectively use it in the classroom (Pratt, 2011). As technology is an ever-evolving subject, it demands the teacher educator to arm the applicant teachers with the most beneficial aspects of technology in the classroom to be employed at the service of “better teaching” (Lowden, 2005). For teacher education to be enriched, it lies in the educators’ up-to-date understanding of technology at the first stand, and then they are the teachers who are the beneficiaries as their beliefs can be subjected to improvement in practical ways (Gaitas & Alves Martins, 2015). In addition, after any training, it seems that teachers’ practical application of technology device in the classroom should be investigated to produce reliable findings regarding the possible effect of teacher education in raising teachers’ awareness of technology-enhanced instruction. This addresses the issue of the program longevity, which causes teacher educators not to be satisfied with the training sessions and do the monitoring continuously (Daniel, 2014). However, neither teacher education program nor the teacher educators seem to have efficiently been involved in the post-education program to check the effectiveness of the teacher education. This is due to the fact that education programs are usually done in conference formats and international teachers attend it probably for the sake of being aware teachers or getting the certificate, which puts the quality of the program under question (Darling-Hammond, 2000). Although research has confirmed the efficacy of such teacher education programs in raising teachers’ knowledge of ELT skills, the fact the teachers are not provided with continuous feedback by the educators to reach future success has been a challenging issue. Teacher educators’ mostly stated excuse might be lack of time or not being financially and professionally supported by the educational authorities, which calls for new teacher education format (Sahlberg, 2011). Such an innovation can be fulfilled by the notion of “scaffolded dialogues” (Walsh, 2013), inviting teachers to take any awareness-raising action on their own by benefiting from the mixture of expert and novice teachers’ experience of technology-enhanced instruction on which the present study is concentrating.

Scaffolded dialogues, as argued by Walsh (2013), are framed in Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory and the notion of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which paves the way for teachers to bridge the gap of their teaching deficiency and be guided toward teacher development. When it comes to the importance of ZPD, it includes all of the knowledge and skills that a person cannot understand or perform on their own yet but is capable of learning with sufficient support and guidance, which might result in self-regulation gradually (Lantolf, 2000). In other words, teachers, particularly those who are naïve, are scaffolded by their colleagues, both experienced and less-experienced ones, in order to challenge the focused ELT topic and draw practical conclusion on its applicability in the classroom for “better teaching”. Sharing classroom experience can enrich the teachers’ understanding by getting involved in the sessions of scaffolded dialogues, which can simply take the format of teachers’ daily gatherings between the break times or being more professionally by devoting time to teachers’ classroom transcripts or video recordings. As technology-enhanced instruction needs well-aware teachers of technological devices, and scaffolded dialogues can provide opportunities for teachers to be continuously armed with teachers’ scaffolding for the purpose of awareness-raising activity, the present study attends to enhance teachers’ beliefs of technology-enhanced instruction, both in theory and practice, through scaffolded dialogues as a form of teacher education to reach teacher development. Hence, the following research questions are addressed:

RQ1. What are the teachers’ beliefs about technology-enhanced language instruction in the classroom?

RQ2. To what extent can teacher education through scaffolded dialogues raise teachers’ awareness of technology-enhanced language instruction?

RQ3. To what extent are teachers’ beliefs evidenced in their actions regarding technology-enhanced language instruction?

RQ4. What are the main achievements of teacher education through scaffolded dialogues for language teachers concerning technology-enhanced language instruction?

2. Methods

2.1. Participants

To meet the purpose of the study, 20 English language teachers were selected as the potential participants. They majored in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) with one to 20 years of teaching in language institutes, colleges, and universities of Mazandaran Province in Iran. Prior to data collection procedure, they were completely informed regarding the purpose of the study. Moreover, informed consent was obtained from the teachers. One of the researchers had meetings with the head of language institutes, colleges, and universities in order to hold the sessions of scaffolded dialogues in these settings. It is also noteworthy that these teachers were selected through convenience sampling method as they were available at the time of doing this research (Dornyei, 2007). The participants were cordially invited to take part in scaffolded dialogues and share their thoughts concerning technology-enhanced instruction during six months to check their gradual awareness of their beliefs and actions in conscious use of technology in the classroom. Table 1 shows the demographic information of the participants.

Table 1. Demographic Background of the Participants

No. of Teachers	20 (11 PhD holders & 9 MA Graduates)
Gender	13 Females & 7 Males
Native Language	Persian
Major	TEFL
Teaching Experiences	10 teachers (9 years); 5 teachers (20 years); 3 teachers (6 years); 2 teachers (1 year)
Academic Years	2018–2019

2.2. Instruments

Three main instruments were used in the study:

2.2.1. Semi-structured interview

Interview sessions were done in three stages. The first one was done before scaffolded dialogues to explore the teachers’ beliefs about technology-enhanced instruction. To look into their gradual progress, after three months of scaffolded dialogues, the second interview was conducted to track possible changes in their beliefs. The final interview sessions were carried out after the teacher education program to investigate the effect of scaffolded dialogues on the teachers’ awareness of technology-enhanced instruction in theory. All the participant teachers were individually invited to take part in three stages of interviews. Interview sessions were audio-recorded for further analysis.

2.2.2. Classroom observation

The relationship between teachers’ stated beliefs in interviews and their actions in the classroom concerning technology-enhanced language instruction was examined by randomly observing the teachers’ performance during the six months of data collection to monitor their practice teaching. Observations were done in accordance with the interview sessions to precisely probe the alignment between teachers’ beliefs and their teaching in practice.

2.2.3. Classroom data transcripts

In order to more interpretively and unobtrusively analyze whether teachers’ beliefs are evidenced in their actions regarding technology-enhanced instruction, teachers’-learners’ interactions were audio-recorded and qualitatively analyzed through conversation analysis (Wong & Waring, 2010). Analyzing the classroom turn-takings can reveal various dimensions of scaffolded dialogues in raising teachers’ awareness of technology-enhanced instruction in practice.

2.3. Procedures

Prior to the initiation of data collection, confidentiality issues were done by the researcher to get the participants’ and their institutes’ informed consent. The study was done for six months to explore the longitudinal effect of scaffolded dialogues on the teachers’ beliefs and actions regarding technology-enhanced language instruction. The context of the study was Kish Air Language Institute, located in Chalous, Mazandaran. During six months of research, 72 sessions of scaffolded dialogues were done by the participants themselves. First interview was conducted before scaffolded dialogues to explore the teachers’ familiarity with technology. Meanwhile, random observations were also done by the researcher. Then, data collection procedure underwent the first session of scaffolded dialogues in which one of the researchers initially presented the statement of the purpose of the study and appreciated their participation for six months. All the sessions were guided by two knowledgeable and experienced teachers in order to make discussions more purposeful. The themes of scaffolded dialogues were directed to raise teachers’ awareness of using technological devices in the classrooms and what barriers were on their way or any existing ambiguities they might feel in conscious application of technology. The main activities were sharing their experiences of applying technological devices in the classroom, discussions of theoretical and practical applications of technology in the classroom environment by focusing on the related papers and books, and analyzing video-recordings of the classes in which the teacher benefitted from technology-enhanced language instruction. It is noteworthy that the teachers’ institutes were armed with technological devices including computers, tablets, and Internet. In order for participants to have harmony in applying technology, after the first month of scaffolded dialogues (12 sessions), the participant teachers were requested to apply computes and online language instruction through tablets and share its possible advantage or disadvantage in the forthcoming sessions of scaffolded dialogues. There was flexibility in any device they could use to touch technology-enhanced instructions. Some teachers were in favor of using mobile devices, such as WhatsApp and Telegram. Teachers also employed computer-assisted instruction through Prezzi and PowerPoint Presentation in the classroom. After three months of doing scaffolded dialogues, the second interview was done to investigate gradual changes in teachers’ beliefs about technology-enhanced language instruction. Classroom observations were also being done randomly by the researcher during the six months of research. The purpose underlying the scaffolded dialogues was to create a sense of self-confidence among language teachers and simultaneously prepare professional assistance for them to raise their awareness of and benefit from technology-enhanced language instruction. Attempt was also made by the directors of the sessions in order to prevent teachers’ exaggerating opinions in using or ignoring technology-enhanced instruction. Besides, the dialogues aimed at triggering teachers to take conscious steps in creating more interactive classroom by motivating their learners through technology-enhanced instruction. Finally, the third interview was conducted to track the teachers’ developmental beliefs about technology-enhanced language instruction. The teachers’ classes were audio-recorded, as well to qualitatively look into the classroom interactions concerning the effect of scaffolded dialogues on raising the teachers’ awareness to practically apply technological devices in their classroom.

2.4. Data analysis

By adopting qualitative and interpretive approaches, this study benefitted from grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) to analyze teachers’ semi-structured interviews during three stages by coding interview transcripts. Moreover, classroom observation notes were taken into account to probe teachers’ beliefs and actions on using technology in teaching language skills. In the same line, conversation analysis (Wong & Waring, 2010) was used to have a qualitative investigation of classroom interactions for the sake of exploring the extent to which teachers’ beliefs about using technology in teaching language skills are evidenced in their practice teaching. Finally, the study adopted a critical perspective concerning the qualitative findings of the study to maneuver on the existing challenges in technology-enhanced instruction and how scaffolded dialogues can bring about achievements for ELT teachers and raise their theoretical and practical awareness of technological devices in the classroom.

3. Results

Regarding the research questions of the study, teachers’ interview data, classroom observations, and teachers’-learners’ interactions are qualitatively analyzed and descriptive analysis of the qualitative results is subsequently provided.

3.1. Research question one: interpretive analysis of teachers’ interviews

Interviews were done within three stages to explore teachers’ beliefs. As to grounded theory, each stage is assigned a category to have a precise investigation of teachers’ developmental beliefs about technology-enhanced language instruction.

3.1.1. Little-to-no awareness of technology

The teachers’ interview transcripts highlighted their very little familiarity with technology-enhanced instruction although the institutes were equipped with technological devices. It might be due to their shortage or unawareness of applying technology in the classroom. Teachers intensified their eagerness to benefit from technology-enhanced instruction, while they pointed out that the provision of online materials and working with the related applications and software demand more workshops or teacher in-service programs to be aware of using technology in the classroom. The challenging point is that either the experienced or the novice teachers possessed very little information using tasks in the online environment and what infrastructures should be prepared in order to have effective technology-enhanced instruction. To maneuver on the teachers’ initial beliefs, some interview extracts are presented to bold their ‘little-to-no awareness of technology’.

3.1.2. Extract 1

I’m not very good at technology since I haven’t used them before. There are classrooms equipped with technology, but I cannot employ it in the class. This is really disappointing because after 20 years of teaching we cannot benefit from mobiles and computers in teaching language skills due to lack of awareness. I do expect the authorities to take required actions and hold teacher in-service programs to help us be informed users of technology in the class.

3.1.3. Extract 2

I do have limited knowledge of preparing tasks regarding online instruction. I have to say that although we live in a technology-focused world, it is rather unknown for us to apply mobile apps such as “telegram” or “whatsApp” in teaching language skills. I am enthusiastic to utilize technology in my classes. However, it is a waste of time if I am not aware of how to consciously use it in the classroom. Sometimes I criticize nobody but myself. It seems that technology-based instruction should be the focus of workshops and seminars to help us be very skillful in taking advantage of technology-mediated instruction.

3.1.4. Relative awareness of technology

The second interview was run after three months (36 sessions) of scaffolded dialogues to probe the teachers’ developmental beliefs about technology-enhanced language instruction. Interview transcripts revealed that teachers seem to have been more self-confident in using online tasks and support students’ erroneous part online. Moreover, they concurred that they have been able to benefit from computer software and mobile and tablet applications to foster more communication in the classroom through which peer interaction has been more highlighted in the classroom talks and teachers played the role of facilitators by monitoring their turn-takings. Students’ enthusiasm to take part in online or computer-mediated classes as well as teachers’ provision of practical tasks, which demanded students’ online interaction through WhatsApp, can be regarded as the signs of more awareness of technology (compared to the first interview) by the participant teachers. The following extracts are the reflections of teachers’ “relative awareness of technology”.

3.1.5. Extract 3

It is an extraordinary experience when you can benefit from technology in the classroom. It is in fact facilitative to have more time in the classroom. It is a nice atmosphere when you provide feedback online outside the classroom. Inside the class has also its own beauty when all the members try to share their ideas and self-correct each other.

3.1.6. Extract 4

This has been the first time I have used WhatsApp. It is quite satisfactory that we have been informed of “what to do” and “what not do” with technology. How exciting it was when textual and oral feedback is provided for the students and they seem to compete with each other in taking part in the online class. It has been a nice experience.

3.1.7. Raised awareness of technology

After the final interview with the teachers, it could be strongly inferred that the participants have believed in conscious application of technology in the classroom by which they can create various chances of learning for the students and enjoy quality classroom interaction. After six months of being exposed to teacher education program in the form of scaffolded dialogues, they all wholeheartedly appreciated the well-disciplined and practical preparations of such educational program during the six months, which was considered as a chance to raise their awareness of technology-enhanced language instruction and simultaneously experiencing its use in the classroom and receive peer feedback or scaffolded dialogues in order to strengthen the quality of teaching and learning in the technology-mediated classroom. Teachers believed in their own beliefs concerning the effectiveness of technology in ELT and they did attempt to do their best in conscious utilization of technology devices, which is the revelation of their “raised awareness of technology”. The two extracts below acknowledge such conscious understanding of technology-enhanced instruction.

3.1.8. Extract 5

I was completely satisfied with our gatherings, because I could do my best inside the classroom as well as enjoying online classroom through WhatsApp. It is very motivating for the learners when they experience a different learning environment, which is in direct contact with their daily life. I guess I am now self-confident in using technological devices. I wish I had had such an experience sooner.

3.1.9. Extract 6

I am grateful to my colleagues who help me be aware of technology-enhanced instruction … A phrase with which I’ve had no familiarity. After six months, I could successfully implement technology into my classes and say goodbye to routine class. This is great when, we, as teachers, learn a practical methodology in this way, I mean our friendly meetings during the week. I don’t know how to express my feeling when I had peer support in WhatsApp while teaching grammar, which finally led to the learner’s noticing of the target form. Or the time when, inside the class, the learners’ attention was directed to Power Point slides to learn target vocabularies. It has been awesome.

3.2. Research question two: notes on classroom observations

The process of data collection was also accompanied by random classroom observations for the purpose of looking into the relationships between teachers’ beliefs and actions concerning technology-enhanced language instruction. The researcher did all the observations within the six months and concluded that teachers have made their attempts to do their teaching according to their beliefs. In other words, teachers’ developmental beliefs from the initiation of scaffolded dialogues to the end of the educational program were largely highlighted in their teaching in that their positive and raised beliefs about technology were also in alignment with their practical application of mobile apps and computer software in the classroom to foster more interaction and improve the students’ self-confidence by motivating them to take more turns in online learning environment. Classroom observations revealed that teachers’ development of their beliefs was reflected in their teaching and the following notes (which were emerged from the beginning to the end of the data collection procedures) prove such alignment between their beliefs and actions with respect to technology-enhanced language instruction.

Prior to scaffolded dialogues

• Teachers’ reluctance to use technological devices.

• Teachers’ adherence to non-technology-mediated classroom.

• Teachers’ confusion in using technological devices.

• Teachers’ wasting the time due to no awareness of working with mobile apps.

While doing scaffolded dialogues.

• Teachers’ attempts to use technological devices.

• Teachers’ motivation for using technology and transferring such feeling to students.

• Teachers’ more self-confidence in using mobile apps and computer software, such as WhatsApp or PowerPoint Presentation.

Finalizing scaffolded dialogues.

• Teachers’ raised awareness of technology-enhanced language instruction.

• Teachers’ allocation of class time merely to technology-mediated teaching by using mobile applications (e.g., Telegram) and computer software (e.g., Prezzi).

• Teachers’ strong alignment of beliefs and action in response to technology.

The above-mentioned notes provide logical reasoning for the existence of relationship between teachers’ developmental beliefs and actions in teaching through technological devices, including WhatsApp, Telegram, PowerPoint, and Prezzi. To bold such relationship, the classroom transcripts of participant teachers were also taken into account to deepen our understanding of the extent to which teachers’ beliefs were evidenced in practice teaching while applying technology, which is explained in the following.

3.3. Research question three: qualitative investigation of teachers’ beliefs and actions through classroom interaction

Challenges between beliefs and actions have always been controversial since it might be very critical to precisely take into account the matter. In this regard, the present study resorted to conversation analysis to find the piece of evidence regarding the existence of possible relationship between teachers’ beliefs and actions in terms of benefiting from technology-enhanced instruction. Although notes on the classroom observations, to some extent, uncovered such a relationship between the two constructs, in order to validate it, qualitative analysis of teachers’-learners’ interactions was carried out based on the guidelines provided in Wong and Waring (2010). In other words, the classroom talks or turn-takings were subjected to analytical examination to prove the alignment between teachers’ beliefs and actions.

By investigating the classroom talks gathered from audio-recordings of the classroom, the manifestation of teachers’ raised awareness of technology can be evident in teachers’ practical application of mobile apps and computer software in paving the way for the learners to speed their learning as well as improve their quality of acquisition. In addition, teachers’ meaningful interaction with the learners, the provision of necessary support, and fostering peer feedback in the technology-mediated learning environment can be the restatement of the teachers’ raised awareness of technology in the classroom. Tracking the classroom interaction in both online and in-class learning environment revealed that, to a very large extent, teachers’ beliefs were evidenced in their actions as the teachers made their attempt to consciously orchestrate the technology-enhanced classroom interactions by allowing the learners to self-regulate their learning behaviors, letting the teacher “sit aside” and do the monitoring to give necessary support. As a final draw, teachers’ scaffolded dialogues could assist the participants to undergo self-awareness of technology-enhanced instruction language instruction, resulting in creating an opportunity for the learners to distance other-regulation (teacher or peer support) and approach self-regulation within the technology-mediated classroom. The following extracts demonstrate how teachers’ beliefs and actions converge when the teachers are teaching grammar in both mobile- and computer-mediated classroom, respectively (In the following extracts, T = teacher and S = student).

3.3.1. Extract 1. teacher’s use of WhatsApp in teaching simple past

The teacher uploads some pictures for warm-up:

T:

What can you see in the picture?

S1:

Restaurant.

S2:

Garden.

S3:

A boy

T:

What did they do in this picture (pointing to the restaurant)?

S2:

They are in the restaurant.

T:

Ah ….?!

S1:

I think they eat dinner.

T:

It is finished. maybe some nights ago.

S4:

They having fast food.

S5:

having?

T:

Oh … (looking at the students showing his question).

S1:

Teacher, is it last night?

T:

… . Moving his head side to side … .

S3:

in the past, yes … .

S5:

(he is the most reticent student inside the class) They eat for example, hamburger in the restaurant.

S6:

Not eat.

S7:

I think ate? yes teacher? in the past … .

S8:

They were in the restaurant. was and were teacher …

S2:

You are right. They were and they ate something.

Teacher confirms by nodding his head.

3.3.2. Extract 2. Teacher’s benefit from power point slides to teach modal auxiliary (should)

The teacher directs the learners’ attention to the slides on the screen and the students’ individual screen (Slides contain pictures of headache, sore throat, back ache, and sore eyes.

T:

What are these?

S1:

disease.

S2:

injury.

S3:

head ache.

S4:

eyes ache.

T:

go ahead please …

S2:

ache in the neck

T:

Teacher raises his eye brows.

S5:

no, I think throat …

S4:

Sore throat … I read it before …

T:

Teacher nods her head … . I have a headache, what should I do?

S6:

what?

S7:

music.

S3:

You can listen to slow music.

Teacher encourages all students to share by clicking on the next slide … .

S1:

better rest

T:

What should I do?

S5:

You take a shower.

Teacher shows his doubt by moving his eye brows and mouth not accepting the answer completely.

S2:

Teacher should?

S5:

You should relax (pointing to the teacher in her screen)

S7:

You should see doctor.

S:

You should drink tea.

Teacher claps the students …

3.3.3. Research question four: pros and cons of Scaffolded dialogues in technology-enhanced language instruction

Qualitative findings of the study mirrored teachers’ beliefs and actions in using technology-enhanced instruction consciously by taking part in scaffolded dialogues. In other words, the current research intentionally maneuvered on scaffolded dialogues in order for teachers to resolve their ambiguities with technology through the following achievements of scaffolded dialogues:

• Experience exchange: The teachers in the present study were opportunist to benefit from the colleagues’ experience in developing beliefs about technology-enhanced language instruction. In fact, sharing thoughts together results in welcoming new and practical opinions and criticizing them to reach promising results. It seems that the best way to have all the teachers’ experiences collected is to hold scaffolded dialogues since the purpose is obvious and that is teachers’ awareness.

• Awareness raising: Teachers’ peer feedback made the path for teachers to experience self-awareness in technology-enhanced instruction. Such awareness lies at the heart of scaffolded dialogues since teachers’ teaching quality is evaluated by including the points of strength and excluding the weak points.

• Teacher development: Teachers’ interview data and classroom interactions revealed how scaffolded dialogues can bridge the gap of teacher education possible weakness in novelty and guide the teachers toward development in technology-enhanced instruction. In other words, teacher development can be the most significant objective any teacher education program aims at.

• Quality teaching and learning: In alignment with teachers’ development regarding technology-enhanced instruction, teachers’ teaching and learners’ learning improvement took place through which they could enjoy meaningful interaction in online and in-class learning environment by using technological devices and carry out the tasks interactively, being able to self-regulate their learning potentials.

Despite the positive aspects of scaffolded dialogues concerning technology-enhanced instruction, the most challenging point is the time when teachers feel no further need for scaffolded dialogues and that is saturation, which causes teacher education to be taken for granted. Therefore, caution should be made by the educators to encourage teachers to have gradual but continuous participation or even take part in online gatherings for the sake of teacher development not only in technology-enhanced instruction, but also in ELT concepts.

4. Discussion

The present qualitative study was a sort of inspiration from sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978) of learning in order to prove the efficacy of teacher education in the field of technology-mediated instruction (Darling-Hammond, 2000). In this regard, the notion of scaffolded dialogues was introduced in order to resolve teachers’ dilemma (Walsh, 2013) in applying technological devices in class (Apperson et al., 2006; Kukulska-Hulme, 2015). Scaffolded dialogues, similar to any teacher education program, are targeted at raising teachers’ awareness of ELT issues (Walsh, 2013). However, as the name suggests, it benefits from teachers’ peer feedback regarding their classroom experience for quality teaching.

Vygotsky’s (1978) concept of the ZPD in teacher education is explained as the distance between what pre-service teachers are able to accomplish independently and with assistance by the methods and techniques of teacher educators, which is reflected in the sessions of scaffolded dialogues. Although pre-service teachers may not be able to practice interaction on their own accord very practically, teachers could employ the method of scaffolding to teach and model peer interaction in order share their experiences for raising their awareness of teaching language skills both theoretically and practically. This study aimed at manifesting new horizons in teacher education in order for teachers to develop their understanding of technology-enhanced instruction by deeply maneuvering on their points of strengths and weaknesses as well as challenges they might face during their professions and discussing the possible solutions. The more-experienced teachers transfer their learned and gained lessons to their co-workers in order to take the best measure in encountering unpredictable situations in the classroom and make their best attempt for doing their quality teaching.

In alignment with the above-mentioned paragraph, scaffolded dialogues are performed by assigning teachers themselves as the target educator. In other words, they are the teachers who attempt to assist their peers to self-regulate (Lantolf, 2000) their practice teaching. It is also beneficial for less active teachers who find it difficult to share their thoughts in broad teacher education programs (Rodriguez, 2013) since there exists a friendly atmosphere in scaffolded dialogues. Last but not least, the mixture of experienced, less-experienced, and novice teachers apparently covers all the existing gaps in technology-enhanced instruction which provides sufficient development for teachers to easily encounter with possible ambiguities concerning technology.

Setting the effective role of technology-enhanced instruction aside, teachers’ beliefs about technology seem to be demanding (Beatty, 2003). Since beliefs are abstract entities (Rokeach, 1968), their development lies at the ongoing process in which individuals are able to manipulate their beliefs accordingly (Peacock, 2001; Sánchez, 2014). The current research demonstrated teachers’ developmental beliefs were in alignment with their raised awareness of technology-enhanced instruction accomplished through scaffolded dialogues. It is worth noting that teachers’ beliefs research still lacks influential studies to probe belief changes longitudinally in qualitative fashion. As technology has been dominating ELT teachers (Corbeil, 2007; Nutta, 2013; Saito & Akiyama, 2017), teachers’ beliefs about technology-enhanced instruction need to be taken into account more interpretively in an attempt to help teachers hold more realistic beliefs about technology. Comparing and contrasting the findings of the study with the literature, it can be inferred that the current study findings can find support of those researchers (e.g., McGuigan & Weil, 2008; Mittal, 2015; Oommen, 2012) who acknowledge the significance of studying technology-enhanced instruction and teachers’ beliefs about it in order guide teachers to use it consciously and enjoy communication opportunities for the learners (Rossing et al., 2012). In contrast, findings of the study addressed the lack of previous qualitative and interpretive research on the raising teachers’ awareness of technology-enhanced instruction through scaffolded dialogues.

The final part of discussion is allocated to the most significant purpose of this paper. That is to answer this question that how teacher education through scaffolded dialogues can bridge the gaps of technology-enhanced instruction in order for teachers to reach development (Lowden, 2005), both theoretically and practically, leading to improvement in teaching and learning (Sahlberg, 2011). This is reflected in the close relationship between teachers’ beliefs and actions concerning technology-mediated instruction. In fact, findings empirically supported the existence of the relationship between teachers’ raised beliefs and actions regarding benefitting from technological devices. In sum, to the extent that teachers’ beliefs are evidenced in their practice teaching, it seems that scaffolded dialogues have been successful in meeting the requirements of teacher development.

5. Conclusion

Qualitative in nature, the present research shed light on the role of scaffolded dialogues to pave the way for teachers to raise their awareness of technology-enhanced instruction as revealed in their interviews, classroom observations, and classroom interaction data. In other words, findings strongly insisted on the significance of the alignment between teachers’ beliefs and actions by investigating teachers’-learners’ interactions in the technology-mediated learning environment. Therefore, to a very large extent, teachers’ beliefs and actions were aligned concerning conscious application of technological devices, directing toward quality language instruction.

The findings of the study contribute to the application of scaffolded dialogues as an educational atmosphere that teachers can interact with their peers regarding the challenges they might often be involved and seek for possible solutions for effective education. In this regard, regardless of foreign or second language context and the teachers’ cultures and language background, scaffolded dialogues can be an ideal practice for both experienced and novice teachers to attempt for better teaching by negotiating with their colleagues and receiving beneficial feedbacks on their practice teaching. When teachers’ viewpoints are mentioned in scaffolded dialogues, teachers’ beliefs of the focused topic can be subjected to possible changes as teachers try to consider the points covered in the sessions and do their responsibility of better teaching. In this case, scaffolded dialogues can be claimed to play a pivotal role in assisting teachers to make a close relationship between their beliefs and actions in the classroom. This study was conducted longitudinally to investigate the teachers’ gradual development of their beliefs and actions of technology-enhanced instruction through the sessions of scaffolded dialogues. Therefore, it can be continuously conducted to involve the teachers with the most recent issues of technology-enhanced instruction and the other points that can potentially help our teacher to be better teachers.

The current study was limited to the general aspects of technology-enhanced instruction in the sessions of scaffolded dialogues, thus, calling for ELT teachers and teacher educators to take advantage of scaffolded dialogues as an awareness-raising activity specifically in CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) and MALL (Mobile-Assisted Language Learning) research. Besides, the present study did not take into account the learners’ achievement, which can be recommended in further research. Last but not least, the sample of the study was limited to the small number of teachers, imposing constraints of generalizing the findings of the study.

Additional information

Funding

The authors declared that they received no direct funding for this study.

Notes on contributors

Mona Mohsenishad

Mona Mohsenishad was born in Tehran, Iran in 1988. She is a PhD candidate in TEFL at Islamic Azad University, Karaj branch, Iran. She is teaching English at Valiasr University. Her research interests include teacher education, ESP, cooperative learning, teaching methodology, and psycholinguistics.

Somaye Shirani

Somaye Shirani was born in Esfahan, Iran in 1989. She is a PhD candidate in TEFL at Islamic Azad University, Karaj branch, Iran. She has been teaching English in English language institutes for more than ten years. Her research interests include teacher education, linguistic, psycholinguistics, and teaching methodology.

Javad Kia Heirati

Javad Kia Heirati is an M.A. graduate of TEFL from University of Mazandaran, Iran. He has published several articles in scholarly journals and presented papers in national and international conferences. His research interests include teachers’ beliefs, learners’ beliefs, teacher education, CALL, MALL, and classroom discourse.