Abstract:

Started in the seventeenth century to promote learning in one sort or another, distance learning in the present age has kept its original goal, though it has taken new forms, methods, means, and domains. Distance education and its relationship to emerging digital and electronic technologies such as computers, cell phones, HTML, ICT, CMC, e-mail, e-board, and platforms have together offered many promises to the field of education, in general, and to ELT, in particular. In practice, however, and at least within the scope of English language teaching, distance learning notion, along with its affiliated technologies has been treated both dubiously and cheerfully. Some traditionally oriented educational systems have doubted its effectiveness and plausibility in the ELT classes, while some other modern trends in education have welcomed it in their general body of ELT.(Wang, 2006) English language teachers as the individuals directly involved in the ELT ups and downs need to acquire, at least, some basic knowledge of distance education technologies and employ them in their own classes, if not as the core factors, as a part of the mixed system of education which enables learners to improve their abilities in different aspects of learning a second language. English teacher education programs also can be implemented via modern profiles of distance education and in-service teachers can take part in on-line courses to keep abreast with the novelties of ELT or further their studies. The present paper aims at presenting the fundamental aspects of distance education within the domain of second language learning and teaching. The present status of modern technologies in ELT and their effectiveness will be touched upon as well.

Keywords:

Distance education, HTML, cell phones, ICT, CMC, e-mail, ELT.