The Potential of English for Social Purposes and Cooperation for Emergency Remote Language Teaching

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to explore new practices in language teacher education. English for Social Purposes and Cooperation, a socially-responsive and technology-friendly approach to English language learning, may help students around the world continue learning from home. This chapter analyzes the perceptions of a group of pre-service teachers after designing socially responsive materials specially created for the COVID-19 crisis. Action research is employed to improve teacher educators' activity and pre-service teachers' training, and a mixed-method approach based on grounded theory and content analysis is performed. Findings show that the experience has provided participants with meaningful examples of material design. This encourages teacher educators to include the proposed approach in their teaching and reveals the need for specific training in material design. Results may help prove the potential of action research for improving the teaching practice.