Innovation in Language Learning

As a researcher of second/foreign language teaching and learning with particular interest in technology, I am intrigued about teachers’ informal learning with technology in higher education. Although there has been a popular shift toward increased technology integration in higher education, yet traditional approaches to technology continue to persist in many contexts. In the past, teachers provided instruction to students without concern for technology integration. They now encounter ever-changing expectations about their responsibility to enhance and increase their practices with technology integration. Although the role of teachers in this problem has been acknowledged, little is known about how teachers’ everyday digital literacy practices influence teaching with technologies. The case of higher education, then, is located in such a situation in which teachers struggle to connect their teaching with the funds of knowledge students themselves bring with them in the classroom. For the 21^st century teaching and learning, teachers are requested to offer interesting and creative learning activities using innovative instructional methods and approaches. Informed by New Literacies, Socio-cultural theory and Cummins’ (1986) Empowerment Framework, this paper is intended to investigate how teachers’ informal learning (mostly self-directed learning) through using technology could be considered as one of the alternative approaches to empower themselves and convert their personal learning into a life-long learning.