Eyetracking a meeting of minds: teachers’ and students’ joint attention during synchronous online language tutorials

Lijing Shi,Ursula Stickler

doi:10.1515/jccall-2021-2006

Abstract

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic forced many language teachers to move their teaching online without sufficient preparation. This unexpected change of practice engendered doubt and anxiety in teachers. They worried about their ability to attract and hold their learners’ attention, an element that is essential for successful online teaching. Our dual-point eyetracking study looks into how students and teachers establish joint attention during online language tutorials. It also examines various means teachers employ to guide students’ attention and scaffold their meaning making process. The data was collected from two online language tutorials where the eye movement of one teacher and one student was tracked simultaneously, as well as recordings of their stimulated reflection while watching their own eyetracking visualisation replay. By combining mixed-method data and dual perspectives, we were able to unveil the complex interactions in online language tutorials and offer practical suggestions to language practitioners who hope to improve their online teaching skills.

Highlights

As experienced online language teachers and researchers, we witnessed the wave of online teaching forced by COVID-19 lockdowns with mixed feelings
It is exciting to see how most language teachers took to online teaching, expanding their teaching arena and developing new teaching skills which will be essential for their future practice
By examining qualitative data from eyetracking visualisation and stimulated recall reflections, this paper demonstrates the evidence of a “meeting of minds” and key themes relevant to online language teaching

Summary

Introduction

As experienced online language teachers and researchers, we witnessed the wave of online teaching forced by COVID-19 lockdowns with mixed feelings. As a majority of them were forced into online teaching without choice, prior experience, sufficient training, or profound understanding, their workload and anxiety soared (Talidong & Toquero, 2020). This is not surprising, considering that fewer than half of all teachers felt well prepared for online teaching before the pandemic according to an OECD TALIS survey (OECD, 2019). All the non-linguistic cues teachers used to rely on in a face-to-face class – such as eye-contact, gestures, nods – became unavailable or at the least less reliable and timely; not to mention that many teachers looked at the black box of students’ video window and asked themselves: “Am I talking into a void?”

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion