SERBIAN AND ENGLISH BACHELOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS ONLINE TEACHING: FUTURE TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This research investigates the attitudes of future teachers of Serbian as the mother tongue and English as a foreign language (EFL) regarding online teaching during the coronavirus pandemic. Although teaching has continued in virtual classrooms, university teachers have encountered numerous challenges related to teaching the invisible generations: motivation, interaction, and the role of students in online classes, as well as the functionality of methods, techniques, and online tools. The conducted research shows that future teachers of Serbian as the mother tongue and future EFL teachers perceive online teaching as an alternative or a supplement to traditional teaching applied in specific social circumstances. During the period of a year and a half, their attitudes towards online teaching have changed, ranging from acceptance to indecisiveness, and including an inclination to return to traditional classrooms. It should be stated that the bachelor students studying Serbian accepted this way of teaching to a higher degree than the EFL bachelor students. A statistically significant difference is evident in the respondents’ replies with respect to their field of study, but not with respect to the respondents’ gender or the current year of study.