Graeme Harrison has published an article English teaching and learning during the Covid crisis on the Cambridge English blog.
In this article Harrison explores how English language teachers can help students learn in online classes by combining digital resources with existing skills.
Harrison says, “Since the rise of the internet in the 1990s, English language (EL) teachers have had what might be described as a difficult relationship with technology. Initial teacher education has been slow to embrace digital ways of teaching and learning, meaning that many EL teachers feel that they have been poorly prepared to use technology in their teaching (Clark, 2018). Consequently, many EL teachers have been resistant to the digital wave which has revolutionised other areas of our lives. Understandably, there are a number of worries which teachers have regarding introducing technology into teaching. Three of the most common are:
- Technology is isolating – learner interaction is limited, and dissimilar to the kind of ways that they will be required to use language in the real world.
- Teachers are being deskilled, and the essence of teaching is being lost.
- The rise of technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), will soon mean that teachers are made redundant”.