The multiple contexts of online language teaching

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss some communicative opportunities currently emerging in networked classrooms and their implications for didactics. In particular, I examine multiple contexts that appear and how they give rise to diverse practices. However, such practices often have their origin in out-of-school contexts and not in institutional discourse and curricula. Consequently, we need to understand how these practices can be explored and exploited in educational contexts. Otherwise, schools risk losing out on important cultural change and may fail to prepare learners for emergent communicative opportunities and requirements. In this paper, which is based on a longitudinal study of Norwegian teachers of English practising in technology-rich environments, I discuss the implications of teaching in and across multiple contexts that emerge in technology-rich environments. Findings indicate that we need to develop our notion of didactics so that it supports teachers working across multiple contexts. As such, didactics takes on the characteristics of a boundary object that mediates learning in and across different social worlds. © 2006 Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd.