"It's a unique role!" Perspectives on tutor attributes and expertise in distance language teaching

This article outlines the background to, and progress on, a project based on work carried out at the Open University UK (OUUK). The aim of the project is to articulate the attributes and expertise required by tutors of languages in distance education. A review of the literature on the roles and competencies required for tutors operating at a distance indicates that the specific context of language teaching has received relatively little attention from researchers in the field. More...