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Editorial

 

Lindsay Miller
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

Junjie Gavin Wu
Shenzhen Technology University, China

 

Technology has penetrated almost every dimension of our lives, including the field of language learning and teaching. Previous literature has highlighted the various affordances and constraints of using different technological tools from the learners’ perspectives. Yet, it is equally important to understand the benefits and obstacles from the perspectives of language educators too. This especially can better inform teacher educators to provide in-time support in pre-service and in-service teacher training. Against this backdrop, this special issue of the International Journal of TESOL Studies aims to further our current understanding of how language educators perceive and implement technology in organizing technology-enhanced language learning: how they deal with the challenges they encounter; and more importantly, how teachers can be supported to effectively organize learning activities in different technological environments.

The pedagogical challenges educators have faced in the past few years have been unexpected and unprecedented. In our latest edited book Language learning with technology: Perspectives from Asia (Miller & Wu, 2021), most, if not all, of the chapter authors reported on case studies from the traditional physical classrooms. Yet, in this special edition, a salient contrast can be observed: regardless of age, teaching experience or technological savviness, educators have had to cope from teaching face-to-face to teaching online and this has resulted in challenges that were probably unimaginable a few years ago. The lessons we have learned from talking with each other, and reflecting on these abrupt pedagogical changes, researching and publishing our findings, have heightened our awareness of the possible future demands all educators must now engage with (see Miller & Wu, 2022). Dissipating our experiences and knowledge about how we made use of technology to enhance our teaching during COVID-19, is also of importance, and the articles in this special edition exemplify such endeavors. 

 

As an illustration of the journal title, the articles in this special edition are truly international. We have contributions from Japan, Germany, USA, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia, in addition to the editors from Mainland China and Hong Kong.