Abstract
Reflecting on the experience of teaching two fully online papers in Chinese at the Bachelor of Arts (Chinese) program at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) (delivered for a total of ten times since 2008), the object of this paper is to examine the problems along the way, and to address issues which arise. The problems are all pedagogical by nature, instead of being technical concerns upon which a large proportion of online language teaching research has been focused. The issues at stake are two very important assumptions: that there exists a Virtual Classroom, and that one can move the class to the cyberspace and build an Online Learning Community in online language teaching. Discussions are centred on the changing learner profile and the changed learner behaviours in online learning, and their far-reaching impacts on the way we traditionally teach. This author argues that both assumptions are mere myths, and urges a re-think of the online pedagogical approaches which still treat online courses as “classes” and insist on building the online learning community to re-invent traditional classroom-learning in cyberspace. An urgent call is then made for a radical pedagogical shift in online language teaching from teacher-centred approaches towards a personalised, small-group orientated, multi-dimensional model of teaching. In this spirits, a proposal on online language teaching design is formulated with specific and practical suggestions for online language teachers.
Highlights
Practitioners in the field of online language teaching have long recognised the differences between teaching in a traditional classroom and online, and the need for new teaching approaches and teaching skills
When given the task of designing and developing an online paper, the primary concern for the online teachers is usually: how do we transfer the traditional classroom to cyberspace? Guided by their professional expertise - competence in the language and culture, pedagogical knowledge and skills, and experience in teaching the language - the teachers decide that the first and last task would be to transfer whatever that have worked in a classroom to the cyber world
Wang and Chen (2009) stress that synchronous oral and visual interaction is a crucial component in online language learning and fostering real-time synchronous interaction is an important principle in distance language teaching
Summary
Practitioners in the field of online language teaching have long recognised the differences between teaching in a traditional classroom and online, and the need for new teaching approaches and teaching skills (see for example, Barker, 2002; Bennett & Marsh, 2002; Compton, 2009; Davis & Rose, 2007; Hampel & Stickler, 2005; Wilson & Stacey, 2004). There seems to be little concerted effort in identifying and studying the new approaches and skills which online language teachers desperately need; and teacher training or professional development seldom goes beyond the technical and software-specific skills (Compton, 2009). 74) and proposes a pedagogical framework on online language teaching skills. In Compton‟s proposal (see Compton, 2009, p. 82, Figure 2), the skills consist of three major areas: 1. Technology in online language teaching
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