Online college English education in Wuhan against the COVID-19 pandemic: Student and teacher readiness, challenges and implications

Abstract

Online education, including college English education, has been developing rapidly in the recent decade in China. Such aspects as e-readiness, benefits and challenges of online education were well-researched under normal situations, but fully online language teaching on a large-scale in emergencies may tell a different story. A survey of 2310 non-English-major college students and 149 English teachers from three types of twelve higher education institutions in Wuhan was conducted to evaluate their readiness for online English education during the COVID-19 pandemic, to figure out challenges encountered by them and to draw implications for future online college English education. Quantitative statistics gathered using two readiness scales adapted from previous studies showed that both cohorts were slightly below the ready level for the unexpected online transition of college English education. The overall level of readiness for students was 3.68 out of a score of 5, and that for teachers was 3.70. Individual differences were explored and reported. An analysis of qualitative results summarized six categories of challenges encountered by the students, i.e. technical challenges, challenges concerning learning process, learning environment, self-control, efficiency and effectiveness, and health concern. Though the students reported the highest level of readiness in technology access, they were most troubled by technical problems during online study. For teachers, among three types of challenges, they were most frustrated by pedagogical ones, especially students’ disengagement in online class. The survey brought insights for online college English education development. Institutions should take the initiative and continue promoting the development of online college English education, because a majority of the respondents reported their willingness and intention to continue learning/teaching English in online or blended courses in the post-pandemic period. They are supposed to remove technical barriers for teachers and students, and assess the readiness levels of both cohorts before launching English courses online. Institutions should also arrange proper training for instructors involved, especially about pedagogical issues. Language teachers are suggested to pay special attention to students’ engagement and communication in online courses.

Enhancing Multimodal Interaction and Communicative Competence through Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (SCMC)

“…In fact, they believed that presentation format, length and type of interaction had a great impact on online attention and enjoyment, or in other words, the longer and less interactive the presentation, the higher the risk of student distraction and disengagement in live online lessons. This was consistent with previous literature [15,16] stating that longer conversational turns may hinder interaction in SCMC, resulting in student disengagement. However, the novelty was that participants stressed the importance not only of length but also of format (games, collaborative dashboards) and type (peer-to-peer) of the presentations as key factors to enhance online student participation.…”

“…Technologically, different studies have delved into the scarcity of digital resources in some educational contexts, poor connectivity resulting in delayed communication, lack of privacy and partly ineffective communication owing to the lack of nonverbal cues and true human contact [13]. Pedagogically, some constraints reported were low computer literacy, lack of teacher readiness as regards class management in live online platforms and low student interest and interaction partly due to longer conversational turns, which might result in student disengagement [14][15][16].…”

Factors Influencing Elementary Teachers’ Readiness in Delivering Sex Education amidst Covid-19 pandemic

“…Many researchers have attempted to assess readiness factors that influence online learning performance by either confirming an existing model or expanding it with additional components (Dorsah, 2021;Zou et al, 2021). For example, Hung (2016) identified four teachers-as-learners' factors, including communication selfefficacy, institutional support, self-directed learning, and learning-transfer selfefficacy.…”

“…For example, Hung (2016) identified four teachers-as-learners' factors, including communication selfefficacy, institutional support, self-directed learning, and learning-transfer selfefficacy. Zou et al (2021) considered other factors such as technology access and computer self-efficacy. Sailer et al (2021) suggested that the facilitating conditions provided by higher education institutions influence the context of teaching and learning significantly.…”

Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge and Attitudes toward Digital-Game-Based Language Learning

“…The use of digital games in language learning has been the object of study in several publications over the last two decades [1][2][3][4][5]. Some works focused on the consequences of integrating such games in education and language learning, particularly as regards student motivation [6,7] and enjoyment [8,9], while others analyzed their impact on the development of certain language skills and components such as listening and speaking [10,11], reading and writing [12], grammar [13], and vocabulary [14][15][16]. Conversely, few articles examined the knowledge and attitudes of preservice teachers toward the integration of digital games in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom [17][18][19].…”