From Emergency Remote Teaching to Remote Online Education: Challenges, Benefits and Differences in EFL Setting

Abstract

Purpose: Emergency distance learning that started in the middle of 2019-2020 education year caused a lot of uncertainties and even chaos in many education settings around the world. However, conditions were different when the 2020-2021 education year started fully online. This descriptive inquiry aims to explore the views, perceptions, and experiences of learners and instructors, who started fully online distance education in the preparatory class of a School of Foreign Languages at a state university and compare and contrast these experiences with the emergency distance education they had in the previous term. 
 Design/Methodology/Approach: The participants of the study included 247 students and 27 instructors who were administered open-ended questions as the data collection tool. Hence, the study utilized qualitative data collection and analysis methods.
 Findings: The results provided insights about the participants’ experiences from various aspects and showed that both parties were conscious of the benefits and challenges of the online courses. 
 Highlights: Different from emergency remote learning, online classes in 2020-2021 academic year were seemingly organized with better planning, which also contributed to instructors’ and students’ adaptation.

An interest-driven creator English course for developing Chinese private college students’ listening and speaking proficiency under a blended setting

“…This transformation of the learning environment inevitably led to external intervention or influences, in online EFL classes, it has been observed that students' performance and assessment may vary more compared to in-campus EFL courses due to ongoing distractions in learning sites, concerns about pressure, and potential hardware glitches that go beyond teacher support (Morgan-Short et al, 2018). Furthermore, some researchers (Dağgöl & Akçayoğlu, 2023;Yu, 2023) express concerns about the limitations of measuring traditional face-to-face interactions and debates with others in online courses, as individual differences may not be adequately captured. Although students were expected to thoroughly engage with course content and activities during the 16-week teaching period, some expected more teacher support and group discussions, and external communication challenges were present.…”

Interest-driven creator English course for developing Chinese private college students’ listening and speaking proficiency based via blended setting

“…Morgan-Short et al(2018) observed that the performance and assessment of students in online EFL classes may uctuate more than in-campus EFL courses due to the continual distractions in learning sites, pressure concerns, and hardware glitches beyond teacher support. Some researchers(Dağgöl & Akçayoğlu, 2023;Yu, 2023) are also concerned that traditional face-to-face teacher-student interactions and debates with others may not be measured in online courses due to individual differences. Although students were expected to thoroughly engage in the course content and activities during the 16-week teaching period, some expected more teacher support and group discussions, and there were external communication challenges.…”