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Language-Teacher Education by Distance

Overview

Our primary interest in this research project is language-teacher education by distance (LTED), “where there is no or relatively minimal requirement for students to physically attend the institution where they are studying” (Hall & Knox, forthcoming). We also have a strong interest in more blended environments where pedagogies typically associated with both face-to-face (f2f) and distance contexts are used. To date, we have:

• investigated peer assessment in online language-teacher education
  
  
• conducted an international survey of LTED.

We are also currently preparing a colloquium with colleagues in the US and Korea, entitled: “Online TESOL Education: Creative Communities of Practice”.

(See the Project components page for more information.)

Why research LTED?

Language-teacher education is an established field with a range of key texts, including Bartels (2005), Freeman & Richards (1996), Johnson (2000), Richards (1998), Richards & Farrell (2005), Richards & Nunan (1990), and Ur (1996). In these and many other texts in the field, the education of language teachers by distance rates little or no mention.

Yet the spread of the internet, and the related increase in online and distance education have seen a large and rapid increase in the number of TESOL programs offered in distance mode since the mid-1990s, and a vast increase in the number of language teachers (pre-service and in-service) who are educated in distance programs. Despite a number of publications devoted to LTED , the published research in this area has not expanded at the same rate as the number of programs and practitioners, nor at a rate comparable to the expansion of pedagogical and communicative practices in LTED.

References cited on this page

Bartels, N. (Ed.). (2005). Applied linguistics and language teacher education. New York: Springer.

Freeman, D. & Richards, J. C. (Eds.). (1996). Teacher learning in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hall, D. R., & Knox, J. S. (forthcoming). Language teacher education by distance. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (Eds.), Cambridge guide to second language teacher education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Johnson, K. E. (Ed.). (2000). Teacher education. Alexandria, VA: TESOL, Inc.

Richards, J. C. (1998). Beyond training: Perspectives on language teacher education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for language teachers: Strategies for teacher learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J. C., & Nunan, D. (Eds.). (1990). Second language teacher education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ur, P. (1996). A course in language teaching: Practice and theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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