Teacher Beliefs About Emergency Remote Language Teaching in Early Childhood Education in Indonesia

Abstract

The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in great challenges in various aspects of life across the world, including education itself, and Indonesia has also been seriously impacted by this health emergency. In Indonesia, English as Foreign Language (EFL) is one of the subjects in Early Childhood Education (ECE) that has been taught online in the context of Emergency Remote Teaching. Despite the impact of COVID-19 on English language education in ECE in Indonesia, limited research has been carried out to understand EFL teachers’ beliefs regarding their performance during the pandemic. This exploratory qualitative study aims to investigate teachers’ beliefs (n = 7) toward English language teaching and learning in ECE in Indonesia using semi-structured interviews. To analyze the data, content analysis was carried out. The findings revealed four major findings, namely technical problems (poor internet performance and unsupported teaching–learning devices), home environment and socio-emotional variables (necessity of building parent-teacher partnership, ensuring parental involvement in learning EFL), families’ and teachers’ skills and competences (low digital literacy), and teaching resources and strategies (use of interactive multimedia learning tools, playful learning, consistent language practice, and English learning sources).