Emergency Remote Teaching in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak: Pedagogical Adjustments of Community College ESL Lecturers in Hong Kong

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the education sector to explore dramatically different teaching modes. This article is a study of emergency remote teaching (ERT) in a community college in Hong Kong. It investigates the challenges that a cohort of 50 ESL lecturers encountered and the strategic responses they adopted in relation to ERT. Documents such as the college newsletter, post-teaching reports and meeting records were used to analyze the language teachers’ context of adjustment, and one-on-one interviews were conducted with four participants from the cohort to explore their firsthand experiences. The analysis revealed the variety of challenges that the participants faced, including the development of technological skills, the preparation of online materials, the implementation of online assessment and marking, as well as interaction with students. In response to these challenges, the participants adopted diverse strategies to achieve pedagogical development in facilitating their teaching practices with students in synchronic online teaching. This article argues that language educators need to develop technological and online interactional competencies so that new pedagogical activities can be developed to enhance students’ learning. In addition, training sessions should be provided to support their pedagogical adaptation and development of new skills. Accordingly, it concludes that adjustment requires both individual and institutional investments.