Vienna, April 2006 - Imagine your home turns into a classroom and you meet your language teacher live online in a virtual classroom. Live online language learning by means of web or video conferencing software is the focus of the development project LANCELOT (LANguage Learning by CErtified Live Online Teachers), which started in 2005. LANCELOT aims to qualify language teachers in the use of state-of-the-art Internet communication technology.
Live learning is the missing link in eLearning. Students from all over the world meet their tutors in a virtual classroom and communicate in real time. They listen to authentic teaching material in form of audio, watch video files, and browse the same Internet web site together.
Worldwide, the demand for language learning by qualified language teachers is great and is largely met by native speakers. In the case of traditional language training, many teachers have to leave their home country and move abroad in order to reach their target group. Due to the nature of language learning (typically a few hours a week over longer periods of time), travel expenses increase the cost of language lessons.
Many motivated learners in remote areas may not be able to enjoy live language classes or might never have a chance to learn with native speakers. If such lessons were conducted from home in virtual classrooms by means of the Internet, travel expenditure would be reduced and access to lessons with native speakers would be easier. Language learners improve not only communication skills in speaking foreign languages but media competence alike.
Whilst virtual classroom technology offers great opportunities in our mobile and networked business world, it is seldom used in reality in language learning. Pedagogical and technological skills as well as experience in the appropriate use of the medium are lacking. LANCELOT aims to fill this gap by developing professional standards and by providing training material in pedagogical and technological areas.
Twenty-three partners from eight European countries have joined the development project, which is being funded by the European Commission in the framework of LEONARDO DA VINCI, Language Competence II program and coordinated at the institute for educational science of the University of Vienna.
The LANCELOT certificate, which will be available as from September 2007, will document the qualifications acquired by the training to become a live online language teacher, an investment that certainly proves worth its while considering the numerous benefits that this new teaching can bring.
