Rethinking CALL Teacher Education after COVID-19: a Digital Literacies Approach

CALL teacher education has long been a concern in Applied Linguistics, yet it remains neglected among many language teacher educators and institutions. Despite the ubiquity of digital technologies, they are often avoided or forbidden in Brazilian education, where laws prohibit mobile phones in classrooms. The COVID-19 pandemic forced teachers to integrate various technologies into their teaching practices during lockdowns and to continue using them for blended learning afterward. This chapter highlights the urgent need to rethink CALL teacher education in Brazilian universities, focusing on digital literacies through research at Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) in Rio de Janeiro. It presents findings from an action research project on pre-service teachers’ perspectives in an elective discipline aimed at developing their digital literacies. Additionally, it reports on a mixed methods study of pre-service language teachers' views on online learning during the pandemic, addressing the challenges and possibilities of CALL in ‘Emergency Remote Teaching’ (ERT). The studies reveal that pre-service language teachers recognize the necessity to develop digital literacies and integrate technologies into teaching, as many universities lack specific CALL disciplines. Results underscore the need for innovative CALL teacher education practices to prepare future teachers to use emerging technologies effectively in post-COVID language teaching.