Evaluation of distance English language teaching education during COVID-19 pandemic from the perspectives of ELT student teachers and their instructors

Abstract

Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic in the world, all institutions of the society have been severely affected. Some of the consequences of this crisis had both positive and negative effects on certain areas. Among these, education is the one that will have the greatest impact on the future. This paper attempted to determine the perspectives of English language teaching student teachers and their instructors on distance education during COVID-19 pandemic. The participants of the study were 40 senior students from the English Language Teaching department and their 4 instructors from a Turkish state university. Both qualitative and quantitative research models were used in this study. Descriptive analysis was used for qualitative data whereas statistical procedure was applied for quantitative data. A questionnaire and semi-structured interview forms were employed as data collection instruments. The results revealed that student teachers and their instructors have both positive and negative opinions about distance English language teaching education during COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most frequently stated problems with distance education refers to student teachers' experiences of teaching practicum, whereas they had no difficulty in theoretical courses. The positive opinions are regarding time-space flexibility, reviewing lessons by recordings, self-paced learning, affordability, comfort, sharing a wide range of resources, instant feedback, whereas negative opinions are about technical problems, applied courses, lack of social interaction, assessment and evaluation, workload, health problems and low motivation. It is suggested that distance education training for both student teachers and instructors will be useful for future experiences.

“Thinking about drinking tea but not drinking tea”: Pre-service English teacher education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkish EFL context

“…A high majority of the lecturers (96,8%) and students (79,4%) stated that distance education was applicable for delivering theoretical courses whereas 71% of the lecturers and 85,3% of the students did not find it applicable for practical courses. This finding is in parallel with the research finding of Türegün-Çoban and Kuyumcu-Vardar (2021) and can stem from lack of face-to-face interaction. Also, difficulty of bridging theory-practice gap ( Adedoyin and Soykan, 2020 ) may have influenced participant perspectives.…”

“…When the responses of lecturers and students are compared, it is seen that both groups focused on the challenges more than the benefits. The common benefits in both groups, which showed similarity with the previous research, included flexibility, time and space convenience ( Çamlıbel-Acar and Eveyik-Aydın, 2022 ; Daniel, 2020 ; Türegün-Çoban and Kuyumcu-Vardar, 2021 ), practicality and working from home ( Johnson et al, 2020 ). Additionally, the lecturers seemed to enhance their competencies in terms of online communication skills, new modes of communication and ICT skills while none of these aspects were mentioned by the students.…”

“…As for the challenges, again there were several common aspects in both groups. Echoing previous studies, these common aspects included loaded course requirements, unfair assessment, conducting exams ( Adedoyin and Soykan, 2020 ; Al Abiky, 2021 ; Çamlıbel-Acar and Eveyik-Aydın 2022 ), Internet connection problems ( Çamlıbel-Acar and Eveyik-Aydın 2022 ; Trust and Whalen, 2020 ), lack of interaction ( Subekti, 2020 ), lack of hands-on activities for practical courses ( Sepulveda-Escobar and Morrison, 2020 ) and sustaining motivation ( Priyo Atmojo and Nugroho, 2020 ; Türegün-Çoban and Kuyumcu-Vardar, 2021 ). The participants also mentioned difficulty of getting used to distance education ( Johnson et al, 2020 ), inequality among students, low level of technological knowledge ( Adedoyin and Soykan, 2020 ), lack of student attendance, eye damage, lack of instant feedback ( Priyo Atmojo and Nugroho, 2020 ) and lack of student discipline ( Castañeda-Trujillo and Jaime-Osorio, 2021 ; Sumardi and Nugrahani, 2021 ) as the other challenges.…”

“…In light of the relevant literature, it can be claimed that students and teachers were caught unprepared while adapting to distance education due to their lacking digital competencies (Donitsa-Schmidt and Ramot, 2020; Trust and Whalen, 2020). For an effective implementation of online learning at universities, both pre-service teachers and their lecturers should be offered training to be well-prepared (Bao, 2020; Türegün-Çoban and Kuyumcu-Vardar, 2021). In this way, characteristics of distance education can be considered as an opportunity to rethink about traditional roles and practices of teachers and students (Flores and Gago, 2020) and online learning can shape the hybrid learning model in the future (Adedoyin and Soykan, 2020).…”

“…As for Turkish EFL context, ELT (English Language Teaching) students’ and lecturers’ reflections on distance education have attracted attention among the researchers. To exemplify, Türegün-Çoban and Kuyumcu-Vardar (2021) examined the perspectives of 40 senior ELT students and four instructors on distance education during the pandemic via a questionnaire and semi-structured interview form. The findings revealed various positive and negative opinions.…”