A developmental framework for online language teaching skills

Abstract

This article focuses on the need for teachers to develop online skills and describes how experiential, participant focused workshops can change the way in which language teachers can integrate technology into their teaching and help them to successfully implement these 21st century skills. It starts by briefly sketching the development of online language teaching in distance pedagogy and introducing the skills development for teachers and the necessity of online teaching skills before outlining previously developed frameworks in this area. The article then describes how – within a European context of increasing demands on language teachers’ technological competence – a dynamic framework for experiential teacher training workshops was developed that is based on a pyramid of online teaching skills. Bringing together insights from research and more than a decade of experience in online teacher training, this article sets out this developmental framework and argues for the need of participant focused, flexible and dynamic training opportunities for language teachers.