Teacher education in CALL: teaching teachers to educate themselves

Abstract The issue of teacher education in computer assisted language learning (CALL) has been receiving an increased amount of attention in the literature over the past few years, including as the focus of a recent book (Hubbard and Levy 2006). This attention is indicative of greater recognition of the importance of CALL practitioners having sufficient grounding in CALL theory and practice, as well as knowledge of what technologies are available to them in order to be able to effectively implement CALL in their specific language learning environments. While some institutions provide such training for their teachers (e.g. Leahy 2006), the reality is that only a small proportion of people who plan to use – or are already using – technologies in language learning contexts have access to this training; for the majority, the burden of learning how to best use CALL in the classroom falls upon the teachers themselves. This paper describes a procedure through which teachers may educate themselves regarding how to introduce CALL into their given language learning contexts. Teachers of English at a private university in Japan were given a two-hour seminar at the beginning of the semester outlining the considerations to be kept in mind when introducing technology into their learning environment. Data collected during and at the end of the semester reveal teachers’ reflections on the procedure as well as on their own efforts to use technology for the first time. The results are discussed in terms of the challenges encountered by teachers in educating themselves to use CALL and the factors affecting their success.