Teachers' beliefs and implementation of CALL

Abstract: The National Curriculum in Sweden states that students should be given the opportunity todevelop understanding of digital tools. However, based on previous international research onthe subject, teachers rarely find that they have enough digital competence and knowledge ofthe tools to implement them properly in their teaching practises. This study aims atdiscovering what active teachers’ experiences are with Computer Assisted LanguageLearning (CALL) and how well they implement it in Sweden. This paper provides anoverview of the previous research done on teachers’ beliefs and their tendencies to implementCALL. Directly accessed primary data was collected through a survey and semi-structuredinterviews with five teachers in years K-6. Analysis of this data showed that teachers doimplement CALL on a regular basis, however, some of them find it difficult to utilize fully. Itwas also found that the age of the teachers might play a part in how well they understand the CALL software. Furthermore, after analysing the policy documents from Skolverket, it wasfound that teachers in general feel they lack the necessary digital competence to teach digitalcompetence to their students. The main conclusions of this study are thus that (i) teachersimplement CALL on a regular basis, (ii) teachers feel that they lack basic digital knowledgeand thus struggle in using the digital tools efficiently in their teaching practises, somethingthat should be included in the teacher training programs, (iii), that the age of the teachersseem to play a part in how well the they implement CALL in their teaching practises, and(iiii), that whilst teachers find CALL useful and convenient, it can never replace the role of a teacher.