Preparing language teachers to teach language online: a look at skills, roles, and responsibilities

Abstract

This paper reviews and critiques an existing skills framework for online language teaching. This critique is followed by an alternative framework for online language teaching skills. This paper also uses a systems view to look at the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in an online learning system. Four major recommendations are provided to help language teacher training programs prepare future language teachers for online language teaching.Keywords: online language teaching; skills; roles; responsibilities; language teacher education; framework IntroductionOnline language learning has steadily increased in popularity over the last decade with the growth of the internet and the proliferation of computers at home and in educational settings ranging from K-12 to post-secondary (Felix, 2003a;Hubbard & Levy, 2006;Stickler & Hauck, 2006a;White, 2003). White (2003) indicated that there were more than 1300 distance language courses from the 55,000 distant courses registered in 130 countries. She added that the common perceptions of online courses as cost-and time-effective have pushed more providers into the field of online language learning. While the notion of language learning at a distance is not a new phenomenon, rapid developments in communication technology have increased the demand for online language learning that involves connection of learners, both asynchronously and synchronously as well as autonomous learning.The online context of language learning has prompted the need for new teaching approaches and teaching skills that are different from those used in teaching face-to-face language courses (Hampel & Stickler, 2005). These new teaching skills are crucial for teaching online language courses 'whose subject matter is communication' and especially at the lower level where there is a 'need to focus on the form of interaction as well as the content' (Hampel & Stickler, 2005, p. 312). Additionally, it requires skills that are different from teaching other subjects online. However, there seems to be little concerted effort in this direction as the increase in online language learning has not been matched with an increase in teacher training for language teachers beyond the technical and softwarespecific skills. Moreover, the vast research and best practices for teaching online may not translate well for online language teaching.Despite a multitude of research-based publications and best practices relating to computer assisted language learning (CALL), including online language learning, there is a dearth of resources on how to prepare teachers for online language teaching and the skills needed for this new teaching environment. To date, no literature review has been published specifically on the skills needed for online language teaching. This literature review is therefore an effort to fill the gap by synthesising the existing but limited literature and providing recommendations for teacher training programmes. However, before proceeding in depth with the synthesis and recommendations, this lit...

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