Online World Language Instruction Training and Assessment: An Ecological Approach

A new approach to training and evaluating world languages online instructors

The rapid growth in online world language programs in the United States coupled with the widespread implementation of virtual teaching in response to COVID-19 have pushed the field to reconceive instruction. Virtual learning creates unique challenges for instructors, who need to ensure that their students have adequate interaction with their peers, their professor, and native speakers of the language. Even with a growing demand for online language courses, there are few tools that evaluate the training and assessment of online language instructors.

In Online World Language Instruction Training and Assessment, authors Carmen King Ramírez, Barbara A. Lafford, and James E. Wermers fill that gap, providing a critical pedagogical approach to computer-assisted language learning (CALL) teacher education (CTE). By combining best CTE training and evaluation practices with assessment tools, the authors explain how teachers can integrate technology to build successful online programs. Their ecological, holistic approach addresses all facets of learning online―including pressing challenges of moving courses online, teacher training, developing core competencies and skills, instructions for assessment and self-evaluation, goal setting, and the normalization of critical CTE practices in an increasingly digital environment.

The authors propose new solutions to teacher training challenges, providing extensive rubrics and tools that can equitably assess online language instructor skills, the training they receive, the assessment process they undergo, and the instruments used for instructor assessment. A list of CALL and CTE resources (available on the Press’s website) further supports readers’ successful adaptation to an everchanging learning environment.

Carmen King Ramírez is an associate professor of Spanish and the director of the Online Spanish Program at the University of Arizona. She has published work on CALL and languages for specific purposes, designed and launched numerous online Spanish programs, and hosts the academic podcast series, World Languages 21. She coedited the volume Transferable Skills for the 21st Century: Preparing Students for the Workplace through World Languages for Specific Purposes with Barbara A. Lafford.

Barbara A. Lafford is a professor emerita of Spanish at Arizona State University who has published widely on CALL, Spanish sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, and languages for specific purposes. She has coauthored, edited, or coedited fourteen volumes, including Spanish Second Language Acquisition and The Art of Teaching Spanish (both published by Georgetown University Press).

James E. Wermers is a clinical faculty member in the humanities at Arizona State University and formerly coordinated training, development, and deployment of digital pedagogy and initiatives in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts.