Social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, YouTube, and Instagram have become the refuge of teachers and students during the last years. However, there are many educational platforms set by the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education like Moodle and which bring the same services to the learners but in an academic setting. These platforms, mainly Facebook, has gained celebrity in the last years and are still achieving the same position during the Covid-19 pandemic even though many applications come to life, and virtual learning has become the only choice. The current research work under scrutiny aims to provide an in-depth look at the situation of EFL teaching and learning in the Algerian context during the Covid-19 pandemic by taking the department of English Language and Literature at Saida University as a case in point. It also endeavors to shed light on the learning process and which tools educators have used to promote virtual learning. As such, the main questions that set the study are how do Algerian universities face Covid-19 pandemic? Are Algerian EFL students motivated towards academic platforms like Moodle? Do EFL learners benefit from the new applications like Google Classroom and Zoom in promoting E-learning? Where about social networks like Facebook? Are these social platforms still gaining fame in the learning process during the pandemic? To answer these problematic questions, the researcher conducted a study with EFL first-year Master students and eight teachers of the English language at Saida University, Algeria. The researcher collected data through a questionnaire and an interview. The findings revealed that the most used tool for educational purposes was Facebook due to the students' motivation. The second tool was the Moodle platform. The analysis also demonstrated that students prefer face-to-face interaction in the classroom and handouts more than virtual learning. The results also showed that students are motivated to employ both SNSs like Facebook and YouTube and educational platforms as Moodle as complementary teaching materials.

With the dawn of high-tech phone applications and the constant spread of internet uses, social media networking sites have become a refuge for billions of users. Facebook is the leading social media tool and this research work aims to project light into the teaching/learning situation in the Algerian context, mainly the teaching of the English Language. A total of 80 Master’s students and 10 teachers from the Department of English Language and Literature at Saida were used as a case study. This is to provide an inkling on the most employed social platform in the teaching and learning process during the absence of face-to-face interaction. The research tools were mainly a questionnaire, an interview and a post-test assessment. From our results, Facebook was the second leading e-learning tool after Moodle platform during the pandemic. The paper recommends some strategies on how Facebook can be employed effectively in the teaching and learning process after the pandemic.   Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, educational platforms, EFL learners, Facebook, higher education.

The current research paper tends to shed light on the use of politeness strategies to avoid the harmonious power of some taboo topics and expressions. In this sense, the present research work provides an in-depth look on the position of these strategies in Tlemcen culture and language use. To this vein, the focal point of this paper revolves around the polite forms that Tlemcen speakers resort to use them in order to express their respect and request for something or to avoid face threatening act when discussing certain taboo themes. To this end, an investigation of politeness strategies in Tlemcen society was made through the help of a questionnaire and a focus group interview. Thus, the outcomes of this study showed that politeness constitutes an indelible part in Tlemcen culture. Tlemcen speakers employed politeness strategies in both family and society to show respect and protect their faces. The results also revealed that they had recourse to polite forms to euphemise sexual matters that are considered to be the most tabooed subject in Tlemcen culture.

Teaching and learning pronunciation has become a neglected issue because it is regarded as an abstract science, although it is a peripheral ingredient in English oral production. With the dawn of technology and its various tools, exploring pronunciation and its effectiveness in successful communication attracts a bunch of scholarly attention. The use of Computer Assisted Language Learning opens the gateway for the possibility to integrate other tools in language learning as mobiles and gives birth to mobile learning or free education. In this vein, the incentive behind the current research work is in twofold: to investigate the attitudes of both teachers and students towards the inclusion of mobiles in language learning, and to prove the effectiveness of this new approach in improving the listening and speaking skills of foreign language learners. To fulfill these aims, the researcher held an interview with 15 teachers teaching English at Dr Moulay Tahar University of Saida. The researcher also conducted a pretest and a posttest with 95 students of the second year from the same university. To this end, the findings revealed that both teachers and students have positive attitudes towards the introduction of mobile technology in language learning, even though some teachers still favor the traditional approaches of language teaching and learning. The results also demonstrated that the applications, used in the experiment, showed the usability of Mobile Assisted Language in learning English pronunciation.

The spread of the Covid-19 leads academic institutions all over the world to shift to online mode through educational platforms like Moodle, blackboard, and Teams or towards the informal ways of learning through YouTube and Social Networking Sites, mainly Facebook or through the inclusion of some apps like Zoom and Google meet. Algerian Universities also hasten to replace face-to-face with online mode. However, there are many challenges, among which is the absence of interaction between teachers and students since most of the lectures are posted in an asynchronous online mode. The study attempts to answer the main research question: Which learning mode is used in Algeria during the pandemic? The current paper tends to give an in-depth look at the teaching and learning situation of English in the Algerian context during the pandemic. It also sheds light on the nature of the learning mode. The researcher conducted the study with four universities from different regions in Algeria. Data were collected quantitatively and qualitatively using a questionnaire, an interview, and observation. Findings revealed that most universities use asynchronous online mode in learning. The analysis also demonstrated that the asynchronous mode affects EFL students’ motivation towards e-learning and raises their technostress since they have not developed e-learning readiness yet.