TEACHER’S VIRTUAL IDENTITY: INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO ONLINE TEACHING OF ENGLISH

Abstract

The urgent transition to online education during global upheavals has revealed critical deficiencies in teacher-student connections that potentially undermine educational effectiveness and emotional well-being. This study aims to develop and empirically substantiate a comprehensive model of teacher virtual identity formation that can represent an enhanced pedagogical presence and the creation of a virtual persona for online teaching of English. In a quasi-experimental design (using treatment/control groups of 5-6 teachers each and approximately 100 intermediate English language learners), a four-phase protocol was implemented: baseline observation; targeted training in self-presentation techniques; controlled comparison study sessions; and a multi-stage evaluation using quantitative measures (participation/academic achievement/satisfaction scores) and a qualitative analysis of discourse patterns through a “linguistic-pragmatic” assessment. The implementation of the three-way model (authenticity/empathy/technological integration) resulted in statistically significant improvements: student participation increased by 15%, task completion by 20%, final grade by 8%, and satisfaction showed differences (4.8 vs. 4.0 median scores, p=0.01). The experimental group students rated the teacher’s authenticity (85% vs. 60%) and presence (4.6 vs. 3.8 on a 5-point scale) higher. The empirically confirmed effectiveness of a strategically constructed virtual teacher identity suggests immediate application of pedagogical interventions in the context of professional development programs focused on “digital etiquette” and virtual self-presentation competencies; this study lays the foundation for in-depth research on personalized avatars/personalized communication/cross-cultural adaptation.