How to Develop Digital Competence in Pre-Service FL Teachers at University Level

Abstract

The study aims to investigate pre-service teachers’ readiness to use digital resources for foreign language teaching; to find out the pre-service teachers’ attitudes to the development of their digital competence; to outline the ways of the development of the digital competence. A mixed research design was employed which involved 56 pre-service teachers of Kyiv National Linguistic University in 2019-2020. The quantitative research method was employed to assess the level of digital competence in the pre-service foreign language (FL) teachers using the Fisher Criterion. The qualitative research method allowed analysing and interpreting data of the experimental learning. The results showed that the pre-service FL teachers who were consulted by in-service teachers and used checklists for systematical assessment of their digital skills in progress had higher results than those who were only consulted by in-service teachers. Also, the qualitative method aimed to gain data about the pre-service teachers’ attitudes to using digital resources for teaching foreign languages. For that purpose, a closed-ended questionnaire for the pre-service teachers was suggested as a data collection tool. It was determined that the digital competence is a necessary component of the teacher’s professional competence which affects the success of the learning process. The digital competence can be developed in two areas: the Digital Resources Managing Area and Methodological Managing of Digital Resources Area. The criteria for critical selection, analysis and assessment of digital resources were singled out.