In the previous articles in this series we saw how traditional teaching approaches might play out in a live online environment. However, applying these to a synchronous online teaching environment is what happened during Covid-19 with the introduction of emergency remote teaching (ERT). This was found to be ‘below the quality’ students usually received (Howare et al. 2021) and so we should be preparing ‘a cohesive and planned learning experience’ (Acuyo Cespedes, 2024) as ERT has taught us that ‘a multifaceted approach is essential’ (Broadbent et al., 2023).
The live online learning environment offers a host of additional opportunities for alternative approaches which are much more in sync with what learners expect nowadays. Gone are (or should be) the days of traditional teacher-centred approaches in live online teaching. Online students have immediate access to all the materials they need to learn anything they want. They also expect to be given more autonomy over their own learning and are much more focused on their own needs and wants. Generation Alpha is the first to grow up in a fully digital and connected world. Online students today would now benefit from having an informed, digitally literate online teacher with coaching skills to help develop their agency, co-creation skills and desire for social interaction, while being mindful of their digital well-being. The following are a few approaches such an informed teacher could use in order to facilitate this more effective online learning environment.
The flipped approach
The Flipped Learning approach was put forward as early as 1984 by Militsa Nechkina (Lenba, 2022) to recommend a blended learning environment. This approach capitalises on class time by, for example, the learner reading a text or watching a video outside class time. They then attend the lesson to discuss and/or practise the content synchronously with their peers and teacher. In 1993 Alison King used an inspiring phrase to advocate the more effective use of class time in her publication entitled: ‘From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side’ 1993.
Online Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT)
This is an extension of Communicative Language Teaching and the first TBLT curriculum was put forward by Prabhu in 1987. This approach to teaching aims at providing students with tasks that focus on meaning rather than analysing and talking about the language. For example, the teacher does not plan language to be studied before the lesson but instead plans a communicative task which students complete and then they report back to the rest of the group. The teacher then explores the language which has emerged from the students’ communication during the task and uses this as a basis to expand language and look for patterns and useful collocations. This means there are no externally imposed restrictions on what language is taught but instead students are supported by the teacher who helps them with whatever language they need, as and when they need it, in order to complete the task with other students.
In an online environment, the teacher might introduce the topic and activate schemata using Genially or other presentation tools. They then put students into groups to work together and they could use Padlet, Trello or Miro to organise their ideas visually before the teacher uses one of the many options on learningapps.org to focus on the language which has emerged.
Concept-based Inquiry
Recently Oxford University Press has published a white paper advocating a combination of inquiry-based learning and concept-based learning. The concept-based inquiry approach uses different questioning techniques to develop students’ conceptual understanding as well as knowledge and skill learning (Marschall et al. 2024). The teacher will use factual questions, conceptual questions and provocative questions to guide students to these ends. By allowing students more autonomy in working together to discover answers it aims to develop language while encouraging conversational proficiency and basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic proficiency (CALP).
Self-organised learning environments
Concept-based inquiry is based on the work of many others such as the inquiry-based learning project in its full form put forward by Sugata Mitra in 1999 after his ‘hole-in-the-wall’ project in India (McTamaney, 2023). In this project no questions were provided and Sugata’s self-organised learning environment (SOLE) approach assumed students would learn anything they were interested in themselves when given the resources and access to the content i.e. a PC with internet connection in a hole in the wall. In a more controlled version big, open-ended questions can be asked, for example,‘how did life begin?’ and students are encouraged to develop, research, and analyse their ideas in smaller groups then present them to the class. Varinder Unlu (2016) applied this approach to a group of international pre-intermediate adults learning English in a private language school in the UK. Her conclusions were that ‘the SOLEs concept is not about technology replacing the teacher. It’s about questioning and redefining the role of the teacher in the 21st century’ (Unlu, 2016).
These approaches are moving towards the use of questions to get students to explore knowledge and discover answers and solutions themselves. This is very much in line with a coaching approach to language learning and aims at stimulating the curiosity and free thinking of students as well as developing learner agency and higher thinking skills.
Flipped coaching Model
Flipped coaching also moves the focus from teacher-generated content delivery to student-driven learning. The teacher would need training in coaching techniques in order to encourage greater agency and facilitating the establishment of student-produced goals and learning preferences. They would use their online peers to help them reach these goals and act as accountability buddies. There would be frequent live online moments in which the language coach would use questions to encourage the students to review their goals and discover their best way to achieve them. They could help track their progress through digital portfolios and using a shared Google doc as a self-reflective journal on which the teacher could asynchronously add guiding questions. This approach develops lifelong learning skills and self-directed learners.
Future-proofing is the key
Imagine a language learning experience built entirely around the learner – not just their level, but their goals, preferences, schedule and personality. This new approach blends the power of AI with the human touch of language coaching, offering a completely bespoke alternative to the current one-size-fits-all online courses.
A trained academic manager – both a qualified teacher and certified coach with SEN training – begins with coaching techniques to uncover their ambitions, how they learn best, and what success looks like while also assessing their language level.
The conversation is recorded by an AI platform, which instantly suggests a bespoke learning path with course syllabus, resources, and ideal delivery format using authentic resources and a rich database of ELT materials feeding from a bank of resources provided by top publishers.
The learner is then matched with a coaching-informed English language teacher, who adapts their role to the learner’s needs. Regular triad meetings (learner, teacher, and academic manager) keep the journey agile. Progress and goals are reviewed, and the three use AI to suggest updates to the course in real time.
This model empowers learners, values their individuality, and ensures that their learning evolves with them. Any teaching, including live online teaching, benefits from a flexible, adaptive approach. The most effective online teachers blend strategies along the prescriptive-to-coaching continuum. For online educators to create impactful learning experiences that truly harness the potential of live online teaching we need to future-proof ourselves in order to help future-proof our students.
