Formação inicial de professores de inglês do e para o século XXI : os papéis da língua inglesa e da tecnologia digital

Abstract

This dissertation reflects on the English teacher education in and for the twenty-first century. With that aim, the study analyzes pre-service teachers' and teacher educators' beliefs in an English teaching degree course from a federal university in southeast Brazil. The theoretical framework includes a review of official documents and policies for English teaching and the incorporation of technology in education, the concepts of digital and critical literacy, in addition to the roles of technology, the foreign language and the English teacher in the contemporary context. The research methodology is hybrid (DORNYEI, 2007), and the analysis is based on grounded theory (GLASER, 1998). Most data were collected in the disciplines of English Practicum I and II of the investigated course through questionnaires and interviews applied to the teacher educators and pre-service teachers over three semesters, and documents of the analyzed course. The test results suggest that the teacher education at the university investigated is somewhat aligned with what is expected for the teaching of English in and for the twenty-first century. The study concludes with some suggestions for initial teacher education, especially with regards to the incorporation of digital technologies in English language teaching practices.