An investigation into in-service EFL teachers' digital competency levels

In this study, the purpose is to identify a group of in-service EFL teachers' digital competence (DC) levels, their exposure to digital materials, how they use their digital competency in their professional lives, and how they define it within their teaching contexts. Taking into account the importance of digitalism in education, identifying teachers' DC levels is considered to contribute to the field of EFL in terms of establishing the foundation. Furthermore, delving deeply into teachers' thoughts and experiences is among the first and most important steps to take regarding the overall improvement of education. Designed to enhance language education in Türkiye, which is the primary objective, determining the in-service EFL teachers' DC levels is prioritized and detailed under the subheadings. With this purpose, the study adopts two different data collection tools within the embedded mixed methods design. The Teachers Digital Competence Scale (TDiCoS) is applied to 351 in-service EFL teachers as the primary data source. The results are evaluated within the European Framework for Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu). According to the framework, it is revealed that the majority of the participating teachers have high DC levels, C1 (Leader) and C2 (Pioneer). Compared to the overall inclination, the participants scored lower in the areas of assessment and copyright. As the secondary data source, the semi-structured interviews revealed that the participants' exposure has increased significantly over time, and that they often use digital materials in their classes when practicing the English language by utilizing games and visual support. Additionally, it was specified that the participants are open to improving their DCs and they benefit and/or have expectations from the stakeholders, such as the Ministry of National Education, academics, and their colleagues. Moreover, they state the areas of improvement regarding these stakeholders, as pointed out in the semi-structured interviews. Finally, the details are given on how the participants define and position DCs with respect to teaching.