OFLEBO, an online teacher-training programme for teachers of French in Botswana as an example of professionalisation

Technology has influenced not only our everyday lives, but our education systems and the opportunities for teacher development. The introduction of information and communications technology has presented new training platforms to respond to the needs of the workforce. While traditional institutions have greatly impacted teachers, there are now other viable outlets through which many of the required 21st century skills, such as professionalism, can be satisfied. Our project OFLEBO is one such example, an online training tool targeting the teaching of oral skills for in-service teachers of the French language in Botswana. This area was chosen because of the teachers’ admission on finding teaching oral skills a challenging task. This paper therefore aims to study the professionalisation of teachers through the OFLEBO project. Professionalisation as a process is continuous, and practice is its focus, therefore the aim is to inspire the evolution of classroom practices concerning the teaching of oral skills.