Mechanisms of intercultural competence formation in teaching foreign languages

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to obtain teachers' opinions on the development of communication skills of preschool children through information technologies. This research is in the case study model, which is one of the qualitative research designs. The participant group of the research consists of 40 preschool teachers who are teaching in various preschool education institutions in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in the 2021–2022 academic year. Research data were collected with the semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. As a result of the research, majority of the preschool teachers stated that they frequently benefit from information technologies in the development of preschool children's communication skills. They also stated permanence in learning, increasing interest and attention, being educational and entertaining, the ease it provides in learning, the opportunity to raise technology literate children and saving time as the advantages of using information technologies in the development of preschool children's communication skills. They stated the problems experienced in choosing appropriate content, the technological infrastructure problems of the school, the technology addiction and the technological pedagogical inadequacy of the teachers as the disadvantages of using information technologies in the development of communication skills of preschool children. Based on the results of the research, in order to eliminate the deficiencies in teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge, it is necessary to organise regular in-service training programmes.

Keywords: Preschool teachers, information technologies, communication skills, preschool children;