The Impact of Covid 19 on English Language Learners: A Qualitative Case Study

Abstract

Appearing in early 2020, Covid 19 hit the world. It created great fear and anxiety in almost all countries including Turkey. It also caused significant social, cultural and economic changes in societies. One of the sectors experiencing these changes and difficulties in societies is undoubtedly education. Based on this reality, this study aims to reveal to what extent the distance education caused by Covid 19 affects the attitudes of the students of Necmettin Erbakan University School of Foreign Languages towards English learning and their success. The study was carried out synchronously, in which the lecturer and the 19 English Language Teaching preparatory class students were in communication all the time. It was a qualitative study, and semi-structured interview was used as the tool to collect data. The findings were analyzed in depth making use of interpretive analysis. The biggest drawback of on-line learning was found out to be not having the interaction carried out in a physical classroom. The results showed that the switch to on-line learning can seem challenging both for teachers and for students.

Keywords

• covid-19
• distance education
• students' attitudes
• english language learning

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