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 within the context of the education digitalization strategy. It emphasizes the role of relevant policy documents in promoting the development of teachers' digital literacy and outlines the research purpose of this article.

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, examining it from macro, meso, and micro levels. At the macro level, it highlights the importance of digital literacy in promoting educational equity, cultural dissemination, and the cultivation of innovative talents, pointing out its crucial 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 educational content systems, reshapes disciplinary research methods, and deepens cross-border 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 Deep Insight into the Connotative Elements of Digital Literacy for University Foreign Language Teachers

This section explores the connotative 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 philosophies in foreign language education have undergone significant transformations. Consequently, research on the digital literacy of university foreign language teachers has shifted from a focus on singular technical skills to the construction of comprehensive competencies. 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 article systematically organizes and theoretically deepens the core connotations of digital literacy for university foreign language teachers. These include: a disciplinary digital teaching awareness that integrates language and technology, the ability to reconstruct foreign language teaching through human-machine collaboration, digital ethics and social responsibility in cross-cultural contexts, and interdisciplinary digital professional development capabilities.

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

This section systematically elaborates on four key aspects of constructing development pathways for the digital literacy of university foreign language teachers. First, it emphasizes the renewal of concepts, advocating for the construction of an educational culture of human-machine symbiosis. 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 precision training system. This encompasses profiling teachers' digital literacy levels, reconstructing a modular "foreign language+" curriculum system, innovating scenario-based precision training models, and improving mechanisms for resource co-construction and sharing. The third part focuses on practice-driven approaches, emphasizing the reshaping of a new ecology for human-machine collaborative foreign language teaching through problem-oriented methods, action research, and human-machine co-creation, thereby promoting the enhancement of teachers' digital literacy in practice. Finally, it discusses evaluation orientation, advocating for the improvement of a data-empowered, multi-dimensional evaluation mechanism. This includes implementing value-added evaluation, conducting evidence-based formative assessment, and building a developmental evaluation feedback loop to scientifically drive 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 a strong educational nation, building a smart foreign language education ecosystem, and cultivating globally competitive talents. The article analyzes the value and connotations of digital literacy and proposes a systematic development pathway. Future research and practice should be based on enhancing teachers' digital literacy to promote customized and personalized transformations in foreign language teaching. This will help construct an open and immersive new-form foreign language education system and innovative talent cultivation pathways, thereby facilitating the digital transformation and high-quality development of foreign language education.