This study explores the status of information communication technology integration in teaching English as a foreign language in Czech elementary schools from a teacher perspective. Technologies are significant educational components in European schools, yet there are several inconsistencies between educational perspectives and teacher practices. Also, little is known about how technologies affect the teaching-learning process and how teachers actually apply ICT in the classroom to enhance communication skills as the goal of English instruction. Studies using the phenomenological framework, which recognizes the role of subjectivity in (social) construction, offer some comprehensive ideas about teacher competence as the main force in integrating technologies in teaching English so as to foster communication skills. However, studies that explore ICT integration by addressing teachers‘ qualitative pedagogical approaches and skills of using technologies are still very few in the European setting. To fill this gap, this paper, which reports on a research project based on the phenomenological case study design, explores how technologies are part of the exemplary English teachers’ everyday teaching in selected Czech elementary schools. The study found exemplary teacher practitioners similar in that they were significantly interactive in their perceptions, practices, and reflections involving their skills in using ICT in EFL classrooms with a view to enhancing communication skills. However, differences in the stimuli and barriers to the use of technologies as encountered by respective teachers were individually contextualized.

This is an empirical research-based paper published in the EDiTE Volume of 2019 as a part of the project Horizon 2020