ICTs in teacher education: enhancing quality language teaching and learning in Zimbabwe

Abstract

113 Rapid advances in the development of ICT have been seen to offer new opportunities for enhancing the quality and effectiveness of language teaching and learning. The computer offers educators immense possibilities, and has been widely used, in computer assisted language learning (CALL). CALL has made significant advances towards finding a solution to and changing the way that language courses are conceived and taught. Although CALL developments tended to follow behaviouristic pedagogies that produced electronic imitations of drill and practice, for example, CALL now provides endless opportunities for interaction with a rich set of media types, characters and cultural information. However, educational institutions have lagged behind in fully recognising such opportunities. This prompts a call for re-orientation of education and training of language teachers. The paper therefore intends to guide teachers’ colleges on integrating ICT into their language learning and teaching activities. The guide is specifically aimed at language lecturers, lecturers-in-charge (LICs), heads of departments (HODs) and administrators in Zimbabwean teachers’ colleges while exploring the challenges of introducing ICT driven language education in traditionally face-to-face tertiary institutions in developing African countries.