Teaching english to young learners through videoconferencing. Possibilities and restrictions

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to share with all those interested in language teaching and learning, part of our videoconferencing (VC) experience at the British Council Remote Teaching Centre in Uruguay. It is my objective to tackle some issues related to the difference between teaching through VC and the traditional face-to-face fashion. Thus, I will explore some of the common areas between the two and refer briefly to the impact this new technology, and the class management model used to deliver the Ceibal en Inglés programme (Team Teaching), have had on the intellectual and emotional experience of some of our Remote Teachers (RTs). The British Council Remote Teaching Centre Uruguay delivers around 1800 English Lessons per month through videoconferencing to public schools all around our country. We are very young in the project as the centre was launched in March 2015 so our experience is still restricted. All our remote teachers have received training at our centre in order to start off in this new modality but they have all been building their own style as months went by. Some of them have shared their experience for the purposes of this presentation at the Foro de Lenguas, evoking some features of the practice of ELT through videoconferencing that seem to be common to many practitioners in the centre. In this context, this article is an account of events, perceptions, ideas and experiences that are worth sharing with the community and not an approach to formal research. It aims at future reflections and might trigger research questions to be developed either by teachers or researchers but its spirit is more social than academic.