Professional Standards for Teachers ofOnline Live English Teaching (OLET)

Ai English has been successfully delivering Online Live language teaching courses to Chinese students for a number of years. The company is currently expanding its language teaching across China, with the aim of becoming Australia and China’s main education provider of Online Live English language classes for Chinese students. As part of this expansion of its programs, Ai English is seeking to develop a more detailed understanding of the pedagogy and practice of Online Live teaching, in order to improve the teaching approaches and delivery within its courses. Many of the Online Live teaching practices that are currently being used were originally developed for a more traditional classroom environment, where students have ‘face to face’ interaction with their teacher. These traditional practices have not necessarily been adapted for the Online Live Learning classroom. Ai English is now seeking to develop training specifically designed for the online environment for its teachers. The purpose of this project was to research the current situation regarding Online Live language learning in China and globally, to identify best practice and provide recommendations to support the development of effective professional training for Online Live teachers.

Research Questions

The research questions were:

1. What is the current status of online live language teaching in China: what are the current problems and characteristics?

2. What qualifications and standards should online education service providers expect their Online Live teachers to have?

3. How should online live language teachers be trained in order to reach appropriate standards for online live teaching?