Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

The era of Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0 has made vast changes not only in technical education but also in general education; moreover, it also requires profound changes in major aspects of education: content, delivery/pedagogy, and structure/ management of education (Haseeb, 2018). Therefore, English language teachers are necessary to adapt themselves to this challenging professional world. In the innovative era of the fourth industrial revolution, teaching jobs have become more demanding and expected to be more creative and flexible to prepare themselves to deal with complexity. This study investigates what EFL teachers know about this trend and how they equip themselves as well as their students in their teaching job. A questionnaire and in-depth interviews were conducted with postgraduate teacher students to collect their perceptions on essential competences in their teaching profession and how they prepare themselves to be ready in this era of IR 4.0. The findings of the study discuss teachers’ digital competences, their positive attitude towards this IR 4.0, and how they are willing to train themselves more to be better teachers of their students. Further recommendations are provided based on the findings accordingly.