Distance Learning During COVID-19: EFL Students’ Engagement and Motivation from Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

The present mixed-method study aimed to explore 114 female secondary-level English teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of distance education in public schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during COVID-19 using a Google Forms questionnaire. Additionally, the challenges teachers faced in distance education and their attitudes toward teacher-training programs during the pandemic were investigated in semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated an overall positive view toward the effectiveness of distance education. However, the interviewed participants expressed their preference for traditional in-class teaching due to their familiarity with it compared to distance teaching. Online classes gave students the opportunity to become more actively engaged. Distance education was also found to promote students’, especially shy students, motivation for learning and participating in class activities. Teachers indicated some challenges in distance teaching, such as a lack of internet connection and human interaction, technical issues, assessment reliability, increased workload, and students’ unwillingness to learn. Finally, recommendations for more effective distance education were provided, namely, technological and pedagogical training for teachers, the need for technical support, and proper training for students on online learning.

Strategies for Effective Distance Learning in Foreign Language, Linguistics and Translation College Courses

“…Experiences and course materials can be shared with colleagues (Al-Jarf, 2020a; Al-Jarf, 2021f). For more effective DL, technological, and pedagogical training for teachers, technical support, and proper training for students in online learning should be provided (Aldossari & Altalhab, 2022). Support services that were inadequate, least used, and absent in DL during the Pandemic should be provided to enable the students to complete their programs of study successfully (Amponsah, Ussher & Amoak Benjamin, 2021).…”

“…Similar challenges were revealed by secondary-school EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia who showed preference for traditional in-class instruction rather than DL due to their familiarity with it as they had no prior experience with DL. They reported technical problems, lack of internet connectivity and human interaction, increased workload, unreliable assessment of students' learning, and students' unwillingness to learn (Aldossari & Altalhab, 2022).…”

Examining teachers’ readiness and perception on distance EFL learning in Taiwanese secondary education

“…Yet, EFL distance learning presents distinctive challenges, encompassing aspects like digital literacy hurdles, technology accessibility limitations, fostering meaningful teacher-student interaction, and ensuring the authenticity of assessments (Aldossari & Altalhab, 2022). Researchers have investigated these challenges and proposed strategies to mitigate them, emphasizing the importance of pedagogical adaptation and learner support (Bachiri & Sahli, 2020;Marco & Daniel, 2021).…”

Self-directed learning skills and motivation during distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic (case study: The university of Jordan)

“…The present study adopted a conceptual framework based on a conceptual model that includes distance learning assumed to have negative impacts on students’ motivation and self-directed learning skills [ [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] ]. The conceptual model that leads this investigation can be seen in Fig.…”