Distance Learning and Development of Professional Skills for Future ESL Teachers

Shaping and defining the instruction process, teachers play a pivotal role in any education system. In this perspective, the quality of teacher education is an issue of high importance in that it aims at training professional and competent teachers. Yet, and in spite of the revisions teacher training programs have undergone, it seems that more could be done to bring theory and practice closer in the field of teacher education. The current study aimed at documenting the question by studying the impacts of an experimental cross-level distance tutoring project on second language student teachers' learning. Learning reported is first grouped and then contrasted to the 12 core professional competencies that orientate teacher training programs in Quebec (Canada). Results suggest that distance tutoring allows for the integrated development of a number of features from different professional competencies as well as for the development of tutors' awareness in regard to these.