Abstract
The sudden global outbreak of COVID-19 in late 2019 has led to thriving online teaching, including the teaching of languages, across the world. As the online teaching of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) in Chinese universities is facing new challenges, EFL teachers have been positively exploring new solutions. To understand how EFL teachers were coping with the challenges, we set up this research as part of a larger study to examine EFL teachers’ cognitions about online teaching in response to the disruption of normal teaching plans. We did so by taking a qualitative approach through analyzing in-depth interviews with three EFL teachers from a Chinese university. Through thematic analysis we found that teachers had clear cognitions about features, advantages, and constraints of online EFL teaching and that they acquired information and communication technology (ICT) literacy through understanding students’ learning needs, online teaching practice, and the necessity of integrating traditional classroom teaching methods into online delivery. We conclude this study with a discussion on its pedagogical implications for similar contexts or colleagues facing similar challenges in other parts of the world.
Highlights
The real-time coronavirus map updated in the early hours of March 28 on Google1 showed that the total number of confirmed cases worldwide reached 587,958, of which the United States topped the list with 104,011 cases and that European countries such as Italy (86,498), Spain (65,719), Germany (50,871), France (32,964), and the United Kingdom (14,590) etc. were severely afflicted
Through thematic analysis we found that teachers had clear cognitions about features, advantages, and constraints of online EFL teaching and that they acquired information and communication technology (ICT) literacy through understanding students’ learning needs, online teaching practice, and the necessity of integrating traditional classroom teaching methods into online delivery
Due to the scarcity of time and lack of facility to carry out empirical research, our literature search resulted in only three publications on Chinese EFL teachers related to online teaching over COVID-19 and in the section below we review them for the purpose of helping us to understand the challenges EFL teachers faced and their coping strategies in having to deliver online teaching
Summary
The real-time coronavirus map updated in the early hours of March 28 on Google showed that the total number of confirmed cases worldwide reached 587,958, of which the United States topped the list with 104,011 cases and that European countries such as Italy (86,498), Spain (65,719), Germany (50,871), France (32,964), and the United Kingdom (14,590) etc. were severely afflicted. Facing the high-risk challenge, to minimize the adverse effect of the epidemic, many countries have activated emergency response and implemented a wide range of measures, of which home-based quarantine and physical distancing are basic ones. To control the sources of infection, cut off the channels of transmission, and make every possible effort to curb the spread of the disease, China’s central government enforced the policy of strict home-based quarantine and physical distancing among her people across towns and cities, while life-saving battles in hospitals and academic research into drug and vaccine development were going on at the same time. To protect the young generation from being affected by the coronavirus, the Ministry of Education of China called for online teaching and learning among teachers and students at all levels immediately afterward. Online teaching substituted the traditional way of classroom teaching and became the mainstream mode of delivering teaching
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