The Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on ESL Learning in China

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had serious and profound ramifications on every strata and classification of society, and throughout the world. The purpose of this mixed-methods research is to ascertain how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected how students study, how they feel about studying the English language and their emotional state in general, and the impact of the positions and responses of different English-speaking countries arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic was first identified by Dr Li Wenliang in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and reported to the necessary authorities. The initial ‘ground zero’ of the pandemic was a small food and livestock market in Wuhan. Soon thereafter, the virus spread around the world, to every continent apart from Antarctica, and led to millions of infections and deaths. China has been blamed for the pandemic, and there have been social, political, economic and education repercussions. The political repercussions coming from English-speaking countries is likely to have an effect on adult English students in China. This study examined how the COVID-19 restrictions affected their daily lives, mode of study, and levels of motivation of Chinese adult ESL students. It also examined how students felt to be learning English at a time when they may feel that the English-speaking world had become hostile towards them. This study is novel owing to the fact that there are few other similar studies, and that the COVID-19 pandemic and political fallout is an ongoing, fast-moving and dynamic process.