Thom Kiddle

Key language teacher competences in the 2020s

This presentation will look at the professional competences teachers will need in the face-to-face, virtual (and hybrid?) language classroom over the next decade of the 21st century, and the implications for initial teacher education and in-service teacher development. We will consider the role of language change and language choices, content and language integration, digital technologies and remote learning, teachers’ assessment principles and practices, and awareness of the learning environment, all as variables in effective teacher development, and how these may empower teachers to deal with the challenges of this exceptional year and the ones which will follow. The invitation is to consider these competences in the light of the upheaval in teaching and learning which we have all experienced over the last eighteen months, alongside the undercurrent of developments in Artificial Intelligence applied to language education, and to examine how teachers may need to reframe and refocus their role.

Thom Kiddle has been a language teacher, tester and teacher trainer since 1997, on four continents. He was awarded the Cambridge Delta prize in 2004, and the IELTS Caroline Clapham award in 2011 for his Master’s dissertation on Language Testing. He is currently Director of Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE), involved in teacher training, organisational management and strategic development projects worldwide, including the NILE Online teacher development programmes. He is also Chair of Eaquals and a founding director of AQUEDUTO (the Association for Quality Education and Training Online).