"Eyes don't say it all" - Communication challenges while wearing facemasks in class

Abstract

Facemasks are personal protective equipment worn to reduce the risk of the transmission of Covid-19. University students and teachers/lecturers in Serbia are required to wear facemasks in class at all times. However, such practice may cause challenges in student-teacher communication. We present students' experiences regarding speech intelligibility in the educational setting. We distributed an anonymous online questionnaire among students from various universities. Speaking with a facemask in class creates communication challenges for teachers and students alike. Students claim that teachers often have difficulties understanding students who speak wearing masks; teachers often ask students to repeat the sentence, and teachers often ask students to speak louder. Similarly, when teachers talk with their facemasks, students often report not hearing or understanding teachers back. In turn, students would ask teachers to repeat the sentence and raise voices. Students pay more attention to teachers' facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, and tone of voice. Students tend to engage their non-verbal interaction skills more often to facilitate communication. We further discuss the differences regarding students' gender and the type of facemask typically worn. We express concern that the inability to communicate clearly may cause annoyance and frustration in the academic setting.