Further Investigation Into the Reuse of OERs for Language Teaching

Abstract

The use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) to support language teaching and learning in higher education has become standard practice in recent years. While OER initiatives have given considerable attention to teacher’s engagement as well as the sharing of culture and the creation and uploading of This paper builds on a previous study conducted in December 2012 and presents The initial enquiry was a case study based on interviews with four teachers of an online beginners’ French course at a distance education institution, the Open University, UK. The results of the initial study show that even when resources meet all the criteria teachers are looking for, material adaptation is still occurring. of the materials, but above all, materials are adapted according to teachers’ own beliefs about online teaching. This paper revisits the types of changes made to original resources and provides further observation about the changes, suggesting intent will always be changed. This paper is of relevance to language teaching practitioners as well as course developers who are interested in reuse of language teaching materials for online language teaching.