The 21st Century Skills of the Middle Aged English Language Classroom Educators

Author: Emily L. Beltran (Technological University of the Philippines)
Speaker: Emily L. Beltran
Topic: Language Revitalization
The GLOCAL CALA 2022 General Session

Abstract

The present research reports a qualitative case study that investigated the middle-aged English language educators’ 21st-century technological skills. The study supports technology integration in the English language classroom for the advancement of student learning. As educational technology has become an indispensable part of teaching-learning and as the language educators of higher education have embraced the idea of educational technology for classroom use, the recent study was conducted to substantiate if English language classrooms are equipped with essential technology devices; to categorize the frequency of use of the middle-aged language educators of technology/multimedia in the classroom, and to identify the strategies applied to catch up with their students’ advancement in technological know-how. Following a multiple case study approach, data were collected from middle-aged English Language educators of various universities in the Philippines (a non-native English speaking country) through face-to-face interviews, classroom observations, and an adapted questionnaire. The findings showed that only a few of the English language classrooms are equipped with essential technology devices. As regards the frequency of usage, the technology integration was utilized in the process of making lessons such as PowerPoint presentations and as instructional tools but depends most of the time on the students to set up and operate the computers. Data also demonstrated that middle-aged English educators have basic technology skills but they tend to be most of the time unproductive on the educational use of technology. They rely most of their class discussions on their “soft skills” like oral communication skills or paper pen activities rather than “technical skills” like multimedia use. The study concludes that middle-aged English language educators outweigh the 21st-century technology skills over their spoken communication skills with suggestions that even for middle age educators; they also need to use technology in the classroom to develop a pedagogical understanding of technology use for teaching the English language.

Keywords: 21st century technological skills, English language classroom, Middle Age educators