1 Introduction

This section introduces the impact of emerging technologies in the intelligent era on education and the necessity of enhancing the digital literacy of university foreign language teachers under the background of educational digitalization strategies. It emphasizes the driving role of relevant policy documents in the development of teachers' digital literacy and outlines the research objectives of this paper.

2 Accurately Assessing the Key Value of Digital Literacy for University Foreign Language Teachers

This section delves into the key value of digital literacy for university foreign language teachers, exploring it from macro, meso, and micro levels. At the macro level, it emphasizes the importance of digital literacy in promoting educational equity, cultural dissemination, and the cultivation of innovative talents, highlighting its critical role in bridging the digital divide, enhancing national cultural soft power, and fostering interdisciplinary innovative talents. At the meso level, the focus is on the advancement and interdisciplinary integration of foreign language education content, explaining how digital literacy drives the modernization of the educational content system, reshapes disciplinary research methods, and deepens cross-boundary integration in foreign language education. At the micro level, emphasis is placed on the innovation of teaching models and the joint development of teachers and students, illustrating how digital literacy facilitates the transformation of teaching models, the professional development of teachers, and the cultivation of students' innovative capabilities.

3 Deeply Understanding the Constitutive Elements of Digital Literacy for University Foreign Language Teachers

This section explores the constitutive elements of digital literacy for university foreign language teachers, noting that it is a dynamic concept formed through the interaction of digital technology and foreign language education philosophy. Historically, both the technological environment and teaching philosophy in foreign language education have undergone significant transformations. Correspondingly, research on the digital literacy of university foreign language teachers has evolved from a focus on singular technical skills to a comprehensive capacity-building approach. However, existing research has paid insufficient attention to certain competencies that foreign language teachers should possess in digital contexts. Based on this, grounded in the unique attributes of foreign language education and the reality of deep integration with digital technology, this paper systematically organizes and theoretically deepens the core connotations of digital literacy for university foreign language teachers. These include: a discipline-specific digital teaching awareness of language-technology symbiosis, the capacity to reconstruct foreign language teaching through human-machine collaboration, digital ethics and social responsibility in cross-cultural contexts, and digital professional development capabilities for interdisciplinary integration.

4 Scientifically Constructing the Development Pathways for Digital Literacy of University Foreign Language Teachers

This section systematically elaborates on four key components for constructing development pathways for the digital literacy of university foreign language teachers. First, it emphasizes conceptual renewal, advocating for the cultivation of a human-machine symbiotic educational culture. This includes reshaping teachers' understanding of human-machine collaboration, fostering a digital teaching environment co-created by teachers and students, and building an open and inclusive school-based cultural ecosystem. Second, it highlights the importance of top-level planning, proposing the establishment of a tiered and categorized precise training system. This encompasses creating tiered profiles of teachers' digital literacy, reconstructing a modular "foreign language+" curriculum system, innovating scenario-based precise training models, and improving resource co-construction and sharing mechanisms. The third part focuses on practice-driven development, stressing the reshaping of a new human-machine collaborative foreign language teaching ecosystem through problem-oriented approaches, action research, and human-machine co-creation to enhance teachers' digital literacy in practice. Finally, it discusses evaluation orientation, advocating for the improvement of a data-empowered, multi-faceted evaluation mechanism. This includes implementing value-added evaluation, conducting accompanying evidence-based evaluation, and constructing a closed-loop developmental evaluation system to scientifically promote the continuous improvement of teachers' digital literacy.

5 Conclusion

This section underscores the importance of digital literacy for university foreign language teachers, identifying it as key to advancing the construction of an educationally strong nation, building a smart foreign language education ecosystem, and cultivating globally competitive talent. The article analyzes the value and connotations of digital literacy and proposes systematic development pathways. Future research and practice should be based on enhancing teachers' digital literacy to drive customized and personalized transformations in foreign language teaching. This will help construct an open, immersive new-form foreign language education system and novel talent cultivation pathways, thereby promoting the digital transformation and high-quality development of foreign language education.