LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

POSTPONED - E-learning : 6 Ps in a podcast, creating good quality audio resources for blended and distance learning
Event date: 8 November, 2011
Location: The Open Learning Centre, King's Building (marked A), Strand Campus, King's College London

Distance learning in HE MFL (17 Nov 05)
Event date: 17 November, 2005
Location: Open University in Wales, Cardiff

Virtual learning and virtual teaching: challenging learner and teacher identities in a distance learning professional development programme
This paper examined the dual roles - student and teacher - played by participants in a postgraduate programme for language teachers, the Master's in Teaching Modern Languages to Adults (TMLA), run in online mode at the University of Dundee, Scotland, since 2003. It was explained that in order to enrol as a student on the programme, an individual must already be a practising teacher of languages, usually at post-compulsory level. Participants are spread across the world, from Asia and the Middle East to Europe and the Americas.

Online teaching skills for language tutors

Online teachers need different skills than those normally employed by tutors trained to teach languages in a face-to-face classroom and they also require different skills compared to online teachers of other subjects. Research shows that the medium influences the form of communication and interaction (see e.g. Hutchby 2001). The asynchronicity of communication in written conferencing and the lack of non-verbal clues in audio-conferencing are examples of new challenges for online language tutors.

Relating linguistic theory to TESOL practice in a distance MA programme
This paper considers some of the issues involved in ensuring that a distance Masters programme is both academically rigorous and vocationally relevant. It will demonstrate that students are motivated not only by career concerns but also by their desire to deepen their understanding of theoretical aspects of Linguistics and language learning and show how one Department (at the University of Leicester) meets these demands in their distance MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL.

Certification of Language Abilities for International Mobility (CLAIM)
Marina Mozzon-McPherson, Senior Learning Advisor at the University of Hull has been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship for her contribution to excellence in teaching and learning. Marina was one of only fifty teaching staff nation-wide to receive a £50,000 prize awarded by the Higher Education Academy and the Higher Education Funding Council in 2004.