Digital literacy : a survey of digital tools used in English teaching in years 4-6

This study is an investigation of what digital tools and approaches teachers use in their teaching of English as a foreign language in Swedish primary schools, in years 4-6 in the Swedish state school system. This study also addresses obstacles and limitations which teachers believe exist in the incorporation of digital tools into their teaching at this level. Using the digital literacy framework as an analytical basis, the study presents results obtained from semi-structured interviews involving six primary school teachers teaching English as part of a range of subjects within the primary curriculum. Interviews were conducted in pairs of teachers. The results emerging from the interviews indicated that the widespread availability of technological tools in the classroom is not necessarily a guarantee that the technology is used in the most advantageous manner by teachers at this level. This finding runs contrary to the fact that the schools in question have provided pupils with 'one-to-one' solutions in the form of individual computer/ tablet loans. Another result emerging from the study is that teachers tended to be fairly conservative in their planning of English lessons involving ICT