Exploring teachers’ capacity to engage with remote English language teaching environments: The interface between theory and practice

This chapter takes a snapshot of the current situation in terms of secondary school English teachers’ capacity to engage in teaching remotely, as has been necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic, in three distinct locations within Asia – India, Malaysia, and Taiwan. In addition, taking account of the potential effects of COVID-19, it seeks to uncover any mismatch between teachers’ theoretical understandings of what remote teaching of English language classes involves and what has been happening in practice. It is based upon a small-scale qualitative study that used questionnaire data from English teachers working in secondary schools in different locations and interview data from academics working in the field of English language teacher education in each location. Through the data, the study revisits how teachers’ capacity to teach remotely is modelled as well as making recommendations in terms of supporting and training teachers to deliver classes remotely and the need to pay attention to both teacher and student wellbeing in order to make remote teaching sustainable.