Given the increasing role of ICT in all areas of education, language teachers (like their colleagues in other subjects) require specific pedagogical knowledge and skills to successfully implement new technologies in their teaching practice.

The vast majority of language teachers in the countries involved lack the necessary pedagogical knowledge and skills. Only a small group of teachers has experience with the implementation in classroom practice of specific ICT applications, that is, CALL programs and e-mail; experience with more recent ICT applications (such as web-based language activities) is very limited.

In the last few years several modules have been developed for language teachers wishing to extend their skills and knowledge in the field of new technologies and to apply them to their classroom practice (see for instance the website of the ICT4LT project, http://www.ict4lt.org and of the IMICTLL project, http://www.ilo.uva.nl/ontwikkeling/imictll). Almost all address teachers of English as a foreign or second language or of other widely spoken languages, while there is a clear need for similar modules for teachers whose native and target languages are less widely spoken.

Moreover, there is also a clear need for internationally recognised certificates for teaching staff wishing to specialise in new technologies and language learning.

Teaching staff of institutions involved in in-service training also lacks relevant ICT skills and experience with the implementation of ICT in language teaching. Therefore training workshops for teachers responsible for the delivery of the produced modules are needed.