Issues in the education of TESOL teachers by distance education

Abstract

Language teacher education by distance (LTED) has become a widespread and important practice in the preservice and in-service education of teachers, and in language education internationally. The advent of the Internet has combined with developments in other information communication technologies, the globalisation of English, and the marketisation of education to afford a rapid increase in the number of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages) teacher education programs, and greater variety in the ways in which teaching and learning is mediated in these programs. This article reports on an international survey of TESOL teacher education providers, and considers the status of language teaching qualifications earned by distance, changes in the institutional roles of language teacher educators, and the current state of research into LTED. IntroductionAs a global language, English represents an important social, linguistic, and economic resource. The demand for English and for teachers of English around the world is likely to continue, and the demand for teachers of other international languages (e.g., Arabic, Chinese, French, Hindi, and Spanish) is also likely to grow (see Graddol, 2006).Distance education offers potential advantages for the training of teachers of international languages and less frequently taught languages. It is one of the more economically efficient ways of educating language teachers. Perraton (1995, pp. 29-30) concluded that distance programs for teacher education can be developed and run at one-third to two-thirds of the cost of face-to-face (f2f) programs for a number of reasons, including:

Motivating factors in online language teacher education in southern Argentina

“…In a thorough analysis of issues emerging in ELT training, Hall and Knox (2009) explain that in distance programmes even the trainers are located in different settings among themselves, the students, and the institution, and both students and tutors may suffer from isolation. The authors gathered data from 24 teachers at 26 providing institutions from all over the world.…”

Participant Perspectives and Critical Reflections on Language Teacher Education by Distance

“…Other issues identified include isolation for both learners (e.g. Salleh, 2002) and teachers (Hall & Knox, 2009a), communication difficulties, including technical problems (e.g. Hirvela, 2006), and time demands (e.g.…”

“…Teacher education more broadly is, historically, one of the main disciplines in which tertiary distance education has become popular (Robinson & Latchem, 2003), so it is not surprising that distance programs in Applied Linguistics / TESOL are both numerous (over 120 internationally according to a survey of Hall & Knox, 2009a) and widespread (with both programs and learners located around the world).…”

“…Further, it sometimes suffers from a 'deficit' syndrome, whereby distance learning is seen as 'naturally' inferior to face-to-face learning (Hall & Knox, 2009a;Hall & Knox, 2009b). However, developments in technology have transformed face-to-face learning, to the point where practices common in (and first developed for) distance education (e.g.…”

Teaching English as a Second Language at a University in Colombia That Uses Virtual Environments: A Case Study

“…Nowadays they are considered to be facilitators of the teaching and the learning process (Boyd, 2004). "They are no longer perceived as a professor that gives a lecture in the middle of the classroom" (Vega et al, 2015 p. 362) Nowadays, they have a management, advisory and supervisory role (Braun, 2008;Donoghue, Singh & Dorward, 2001;Hall & Knox, 2009). …”