Abstract:

The recent situation with the COVID-19 pandemic posed a new demand of teachers and on their competences and skills as educators as they were forced to “switch” to online teaching mode. This, along with the fact that many pre-service teachers in their final years at university were asked to get into school and substitute the regular teachers who got affected by COVID-19, put forward the idea of reconceptualising the role of developing educator-specific digital competence of student teachers. The aim of the present study is to determine pre-service English Language (EL) teachers’ beliefs about digital competence and their perceptions about its effect on their own creativity as teachers to young L2 learners. The study implements a relatively new methodology in the field of foreign language teacher research – the Q methodology which has been widely used in social sciences and which recently gained an impetus in studies related to the exploration of cultural identity and plurilingualism. A Q-methodology questionnaire was administered to 63 student teachers of English at a Bulgarian University. The results indicate that EL pre-service teachers digital competence is considered a necessary asset in the repertoire of a successful young learner L2 teacher. However, digital skills tend to be regarded as a technical aspect of the teaching profession that contributes to enhancing the creativity of L2 learners, rather than the creativity of teachers. The practical implication of the study is that pre-service English language teaching programmes at university level need to focus more on explicitly developing the link between digital competence and L2 teachers’ creativity.

Keywords:

Pre-service English language teachers, digital competence, creativity, 21st century skills.