Online language learning in times of crisis: Hindrance or opportunity?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes to the way teachers teach and students learn. Although there is a surplus of research on online education, the transition period to online education is also worth investigating. This study set out to explore language learners’ perceptions of how they were impacted by emergency remote teaching (ERT). All the participants were students attending an English medium university in Turkey. The mode of teaching, changes in teacher-student and student-student interaction, online tools and materials used in the courses were investigated by a comprehensive self-developed online survey and the data were triangulated later by semi-structured interviews conducted with the volunteering participants. Most found the transition to ERT demanding, particularly the loss of face-to-face interaction; however, some students benefited from being able to better regulate their own learning process thanks to the recorded lectures and online materials. Students also appreciated receiving regular feedback from instructors about their progress.

Keywords

• emergency remote teaching
• online education
• distance education
• pandemic period language learning

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