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Establishing professional online communities for world language educators
Author(s) -
Knight Stephanie W. P.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/flan.12458
Subject(s) - professional development , psychology , isolation (microbiology) , pedagogy , articulation (sociology) , professional learning community , computer mediated communication , medical education , engineering ethics , computer science , the internet , political science , engineering , medicine , politics , world wide web , law , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Professional isolation, a familiar issue in world language education, has been exacerbated by the COVID‐19 pandemic. This article addresses this issue by providing world language educators with practical guidance related to establishing high‐functioning professional networks online. Empirical findings related to computer‐mediated communication (CMC) in language learning and teacher training contexts support the articulation of four critical considerations for successful online professional communities: that participants (a) possess requisite technical knowledge to navigate the platforms being utilized; (b) develop requisite reflective and evaluative competencies; (c) exhibit ongoing, sustained engagement; and (d) engage collaboratively with other participants. In concert, successful treatment of these considerations not only provides practitioners with a temporary solution to engage in physically distant collaboration, but also may help establish a more robust, sustainable professional development infrastructure for world language teachers in the future.