Profiling of English language teachers as trainees in an online course and ensuing implications

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of profiling English Language Teachers' preferences and experiences of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in order to inform the design of an online teacher training programme in Language Testing and Assessment and the relevant teacher training research. The findings revealed that the participant teachers received very well a variety of formats and also, they indicated methods as well as types of tasks and activities they would find most favourable in an online training course. Teachers were diverse but mediocre on average with regard to the level of confidence of their competencies in using ICT in their classrooms. Small differences were also revealed between teachers with regard to their ICT competency levels on the basis of their previous participation in online training courses but strong correlations among the different ICT competencies investigated. The findings point to the need to incorporate scaffolds in the design of online training environments that will help teachers feel confident in the online training environment and especially empower those that have not participated in such training courses before. Overall the study advocates for good practices that can be relevant and informative for higher education authorities and teacher training institutions responsible for designing (blended or online) professional training schemes for pre- and in-service English language teachers.