DISTANCE LANGUAGE LEARNING AS SCHOOL LEARNERS PERCEIVE IT

Abstract

Abstract. Introduction. The school breakdown in spring 2020 made both teachers and learners all overthe world face new challenges: how to cope with distance learning (DL). It was not simple even in the welldeveloped countries. In Ukraine teachers tried to find different solutions. This period was a sudden but hugestep towards implementing ICT into the learning process. Purpose. The aim of the present study was to get aninsight into the way learners see distance learning, to hear their opinion and see their attidude to this form ofeducation, the difficulties and challenges they encountered during this period in the learning process in generaland in foreign language (FL) learning in particular. The focus was made on the learning habits, motivation,assessment, applications used, time spent on learning and stress students might have experienced. Methods.An online questionnaire containing closed-ended and open-ended questions was compiled and filled in bylearners of the upper grades of different schools. The data analysis was interpretive and statistical. Results.The material was sent mainly in the form of written text or video links and recordings via Messenger, emailor Google Classroom, very few online lessons were held. Most learners had difficulties; the most problematicarea in FL learning was grammar. Feedback and assessment were mainly in written form. The attitude tolearning was quite serious, learners developed their digital skills but some became demotivated. It was moretime-consuming, more difficult but less stressful and also less effective than face-to-face learning. Conclusion.Despite all the difficulties faced learners developed learner autonomy, digital skills and gained experience ina new form of learning that can be useful for them in their future studies as in the digital age DL is gainingground worldwide.