Measures Taken by Lecturers in Teaching Language Skills to Large EFL Classes Online at Some Universities in Vietnam

Abstract

In EFL online teaching, large-sized classes are of major concern, and different teachers have taken various measures to facilitate and enable better learning outcomes. This study investigated the measures used by lecturers at some universities in Vietnam to teach language skills to large EFL classes online. The sample size was 60 respondents from different age groups, university settings, and IT competence levels. The research found that most teachers often preferred teaching receptive skills (i.e. reading and listening) as they were more graphic and more easily handled. Accordingly, more audio-visual measures were reported to be effective. Activities that allowed students to prepare and get ready were also more favorable. Presentations, role-plays, interviews and flipped classes were counted among the most frequently used activities. Besides, class short assignments on less academic tasks were more prevailing because they did not apply challenges and pressure on learners. Respondents revealed that they had to perform a lot of technical skills and combine several digital means of teaching, managing, monitoring and assessing their classes. It was recommended from this study that more training on handling blended classes and support efforts should be given to teachers of large classes as well as more innovative language activities and pedagogical measures should be designed to improve teaching and learning quality in such a circumstance.