Adaptation to Emergency Online Education: A Case of Oral Communication Skills Course in ELT

Abstract

The significant growth of the cases all around the world caused by the Covid-19 pandemic necessitated the intermittent closures in higher education in March, 2020 in Turkey. Yozgat Bozok University started online education synchronously and asynchronously via Google Meet and Google Classroom. This paper aims to present ELT students' online experience in carrying out Oral Communication Skills course adapted to distance learning. Secondly, by conducting qualitative research methods, it presents students' standpoints concerning the problems they faced with an unplanned and unprepared online education. The researcher sent reflective writing questions to students and then arranged online interviews. Qualitative data were analyzed by NVivo 12 and learner-reported data bring fruitful insights on students' attitudes towards Google Meet and Google Classroom. It is founded that these applications increase students' interaction and help them promote communication skills. However, poor internet connection and lack of internet access are noted by all the participants as a basic problem for online education. The present study drawing on current distance learning literature suggests instructors to design student-centred online environment to foster student participation.