Investigating EFL Students’ Perceptions on E-learning Paradigm-Shift During Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The purpose of this research article is to investigate the perceptions of EFL students during the Covid-19 pandemic on implementing e-learning at university-level education in the EFL context of Afghanistan. The covid-19 pandemic has globally led the universities towards a paradigm-shift. As well as the instant development of ICT has restructured the content and the context of education particularly teaching and learning EFL. To determine the barriers and opportunities of implementing e-learning in EFL education, a qualitative method with semi-structured interview are applied to perceive the perceptions of EFL students. The study purposefully selected EFL students (N= 21 male and female) from Afghanistan universities as respondents. The data from the semi-structured interview is analyzed thematically. Results show that EFL students perceive e-learning approach as a better alternative to traditional face-to-face classrooms. Despite being regarded as an interactive method for EFL education, the lack of regular electricity connection, low internet bandwidth, high costs of ICT tools, lack of infrastructures, and lack of ICT knowledge of the teachers and students are perceived to be the barriers to implementing e-learning in Afghanistan higher education. In brief, the study contributes to establishing an in-depth understanding of the e-learning implementation and EFL instructions in Afghanistan higher education during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Generated Themes of E-learning: Exploration of Students’ Challenges During Covid-19

“…It was evident that e-learning strategies established a supportive rapport that successfully qualifies for quality indicators for the online education system. The results aligned with the study of Rahim 2021 (16) , and Fahara et al, (17) who indicated similar qualities such as time spent in the learning atmosphere, days posted (Course content) on the portal, the number of feedback made to students within a discussion, and timeliness of responses to students' questions and grading of assignments considered as a measure of quality. Students revealed verbal immediacy by calling the students by name, using humor, and encouraging students' input and discussion.…”

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on students’ learning in higher education in Afghanistan

“…In fact, the world has been stressful for everyone and the outbreak of the virus caused problems in education. Afghanistan as a post-conflict country is not an exception in Asia ( Rahim and Chandran, 2021 ). To avoid the spread of COVID-19, the Afghan government took certain measures.…”

“…Meng et al (2020) argued that almost all countries experienced changes in education. Since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the universities have transformed teaching and learning and the lecturers have been conducting online classes (Rahim and Chandran, 2021). The Ministry of Higher Education introduced an online learning system called "Higher Education Learning Management System" (HELMS).…”

Factors Influencing the Use of ICT for English Language Learning of Indonesian EFL University Students

“…The use of ICT in ELT assists students in improving their attitudes toward learning English (Idowu & Gbadebo, 2017;Sabti & Chaichan, 2014). The implementation of ICT in the classroom may result in positive attitudes among both teachers and learners (Benghalem, 2015;Rahim & Chandran, 2021).…”