Key teacher competences in the 2020's

Thom Kiddle of Nile (Norwich Institute for Language Education) presented on the 'Key teacher competences in the 2020's' at the 5th Future of English Language Teaching conference in October 2020.

This presentation looked 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 considered 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 six 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. This choice of areas of focus in this talk is not intended to be exhaustive, nor inflexible, but rather a reflection on trends which have been emerging over some time, and are thrown into stark relief by current realities and discussions of possible futures.