Expanding upon last year’s successful program, CLASSRoad’s 2016 fully online STARTALK Teacher Program will provide an opportunity for intermediate and master Arabic, Chinese and Persian language teachers to focus on the TELL Learning Tools LT1 (a-c) criteria, building their ability to identify, design and deliver online lessons that use comprehensible input strategies to stay in the target language for 90% of instructional time and to utilize suitable digital tools and media to  implement planning steps and activities.

The program includes asynchronous and synchronous interaction among instructors and participants, featuring video presentations by experts, formative assessments, discussions, observations of recorded online language teaching examples, peer learning and feedback, peer microteaching practice, online microteaching of remote language students, and self-assessment and personal growth plan development. The four-week program (80 contact hours) will feature three weeks of module-based daily instruction and group work, including several days of peer microteaching and preparation, followed by a fourth week that involves microteaching of remote target language students, along with peer observation, personal reflection and professional planning. The program will be delivered using the online learning management system Moodlerooms and the web-conference platform Adobe Connect, which allows for adaptive design, improved mobile accessibility, the giving of timely feedback, and the course to be structured in an innovative and highly interactive manner.