CALL Teacher Training—Considerations for Low-Resource Environments

Oct 15, 2026

The pandemic in 2020 created widespread disruption to daily life and education, including English for Foreign Languages (EFL) teaching and learning across borders, groups, and unequal socioeconomic conditions. Educators and administrators had to rapidly reconfigure in-person instruction for online formats, while learners adjusted to new approaches. This article argues that computer-assisted language learning (CALL) teacher education must build teachers’ technological knowledge and skills, especially when implementing technology affordances in low-resource contexts. It reviews critical issues and presents an online CALL teacher education course design, followed by practical guidelines.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages25

Reading Time1 h 3 min

AccessFree to download

Overview of CALL Teacher Training

Introduction

Low-, Mid-and High-Resource Settings

calico journal (online) issn 2056–9017 Article CALL Teacher Training—Considerations for Low-Resource Environments: Overview of CALL Teacher Training Yasin Karatay and Volker Hegelheimer 1 Abstract The pandemic in 2020 has profoundly impacted millions of people all around the world. We have experienced intense disruption in our daily lives. We have lost loved ones, jobs, motivation, and precious time that could have been used more productively. The pandemic did not distinguish between borders, race, or gender. It affected everyone but not equally, unveiling socioeconomic differences within and across countries in access to robust health care, tolerable working environments, and other basic needs. Inevitably, the pandemic has also disrupted the normal course of the way we teach and learn, especially in English for Foreign Languages (EFL) contexts. Administrators and teachers needed to suddenly reconfigure their in-person classes for online teaching while students had to adjust to this new way of language learning. As Godwin-Jones (2020) envisaged, this widespread switch to distance learning seems likely to be the new normal rather than a one-time occurrence. Considering Hubbard and Levy’s (2006) concern that “both language teachers in training and practicing teachers will find themselves at a disadvantage if they are not adequately proficient in computer-assisted language learning,” it is now even more crucial for language teachers to develop skills, knowledge, and understanding of technology use in language teaching. As Oskoz and Smith (2020) pointed out, this new era in language teaching and learning provides a unique opportunity to investigate the affordances of technology and harmonize these affordances with learner, teacher, and curricular objectives. Thus, taking afresh look at teacher training for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) Affiliation 1 Iowa State University, USA. [email: ](email: ykaratay@iastate.edu)[ykaratay@iastate.edu](email: ykaratay@iastate.edu) [email: ](email: volkerh@iastate.edu)[volkerh@iastate.edu](email: volkerh@iastate.edu) calico journal vol 38.3 2021 271–295 [https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.20159](https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.20159) © 2021, equinox publishing 272 CALLTeacherTraining—ConsiderationsforLow-ResourceEnvironments in order to see how these affordances can be better implemented, especially in low-resource contexts, seems like a perfect place to start. In this article, we first discuss some critical issues in CALL teacher education. Then we introduce an online CALL teacher education (CTE) course by explaining how these issues have been implemented in designing the course. We conclude by providing practical guidelines on how to design online professional development courses in the language teaching field. Keywords: CALL teacher training; teacher education 1. Introduction The pandemic in 2020 has profoundly impacted millions of people all around the world. We have experienced intense disruption to our daily lives. We have lost loved ones, jobs, motivation, and precious time that could have been used more productively. The pandemic did not distinguish between borders, race, or gender. It affected everyone, but not equally, unveiling socioeconomic differences within and across countries with respect to access to robust healthcare, tolerable working environments, and other basic needs. Inevitably, the pandemic has also disrupted the normal course of the way we teach and learn, including in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts. Administrators and teachers needed to suddenly reconfigure their in-person classes for online teaching, while students had to adjust to this new way of language learning. As Godwin-Jones (2020) envisaged, this widespread switch to distance learning seems likely to be the new normal rather than a one-time occurrence. Considering Hubbard and Levy’s (2006) concern that “both language teachers in training and practicing teache

FAQs

Why does the pandemic increase the need for CALL teacher training?

The pandemic forced a sudden shift from in-person teaching to distance learning, disrupting normal teaching and learning processes. This highlighted the need for teachers to develop skills and understanding of technology use in language teaching, particularly for online contexts.

What does the article emphasize about technology affordances in CALL?

It emphasizes investigating the affordances of technology and aligning them with learner, teacher, and curricular objectives. It also focuses on how these affordances can be better implemented in low-resource contexts.

How does the article organize resource settings?

It introduces different resource settings and describes their characteristics. The article distinguishes low-resource, mid-resource, and high-resource environments, including differences in access to devices, internet connectivity, bandwidth reliability, and classroom or lab infrastructure.

Oct 15, 2026

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