The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted English language teaching (ELT) in many ways, and it has pushed language educators to the limit. Due to the shift to virtual education, the non-mediated in-person support that many instructors used to acknowledge their students’ needs, is no longer available. A question of significant relevance to this ongoing emergency shift is: How do English language instructors differentiate remote instruction? Differentiated Remote Instruction (DRI) is the pedagogical approach that is needed for successful e-learning and remote teaching. Guided by three main research questions, this study examines the adoption and challenges of differentiated remote instruction (DRI) in online classrooms by English language college instructors during COVID-19 in the Saudi context. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach, and the examination is based on online surveys filled out by 172 English language instructors and a thematic analysis of six semi-structured interviews. Analysis has yielded interesting findings on the differentiation practices and challenges among virtual language instructors. Findings show that there are some factors related to 1) students; 2) instructors; and 3) technological issues that affect and challenge the implementation of DRI in EFL virtual classrooms. Moreover, despite the DRI challenges faced by the EFL instructors, they did attempt to find methods to deal with them. These methods were related to effective teaching through online platforms (LMS), early diagnosis and interventions for problem and weak learners, specific tailoring of lessons and activities, and dedicating one-on-one online sessions for students in need.

In today’s digital age, emojis have come to compensate for the nonverbal cues that speakers use to communicate their attitudes or emotions as they speak, and hence become an essential element of online communication. In the realm of WhatsApp, where written conversations with an immediacy level close to that of spoken are supported, an ironic or sarcastic message is likely to be misunderstood, as it involves decrypting a meaning that often contradicts what is said. The functions of emojis could facilitate the correct interpretation of a message. However, the phenomenon of emojis may not be ideal for visually impaired WhatsApp users. Distinguishing sarcasm from the sincerity tone of a message requires distinct semantic and cognitive processes. This study aims to uncover how visually impaired users (VIU) use emojis on WhatsApp to clarify sarcastic versus literal intent. To meet this aim, two experimental tasks were conducted. Results provide clear evidence that emojis are necessary tools for VIU in online communication. However, their use varies with emojis linked more to literal WhatsApp messages than sarcastic ones and in praise situations than in criticism.