The practice of online assessment in an EFL context amidst COVID-19 pandemic: views from teachers

Abstract

For many years, technology has been applied to improve the quality of language learning and teaching. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the integration of technology in different language learning contexts. The sudden shift to online teaching faced educators with an array of challenges they had not experienced before. In particular, the teachers encountered many barriers with the online assessment of the students. To shed more light on what passed, following a qualitative mode of inquiry, the present study set out to find out how a group of 20 Iranian English language teachers at Persian Gulf University faced with the online assessment challenges posed by COVID-19. For this aim, the researchers conducted in-depth semi-structured retrospective interviews with the teachers at different times throughout the course. In addition, the teachers were asked to provide a narrative account of how they responded to the crisis. The analysis of the findings showed that after the shift to online assessment, the teachers initially faced with serious pedagogical, technical, administrative, and affective barriers, but as the course proceeded, they could adjust their practice with the new situation. However, the teachers recounted problems that still remained and negatively affected their practice. Overall, the study discusses that to improve the online assessment in the post-COVID-19 era several technological, pedagogical, and administrative measures should be taken into account. These would further improve the integration of the technology in the pedagogical context in the long run.

An Exploratory Study of a Korean EFL Teacher’s Identity Shift during the Pandemic

“…Also, her reflective practices for self-care and the reformation of her teaching showed how she performed the dynamic and flexible roles of a language teacher and confirmed her emerging identity. Similar findings surfaced in the studies on EFL teachers" challenges amid the difficult times (e.g., Davies et al, 2020;Ghanbari & Nowroozi, 2021;Farrell, 2021).…”

“…Due to the global health crisis, language teachers were initially confronted with significant administrative, technical, pedagogical, and even affective difficulties; however, they often adapted to these new circumstances -becoming more confident and flexible in teaching on online platforms-as they proceeded through their courses (e.g., Farrell, 2021;Ghanbari & Nowroozi, 2021;Sari, 2021). For instance, Farrell"s (2021) study demonstrated how four EFL novice teachers in Costa Rica overcame their emotional challenges through self-reflection and participatory classroom observations.…”

“…Further, the unexpected transition to online teaching caused several challenges related to emotional, technical, and pedagogical issues for EFL teachers (e.g., Sundarwati & Pahlevi, 2021;Turnbull et al, 2021). EFL teachers also reported their inevitable difficulties and frustrations with the changeover (e.g., Farrell, 2021;Ghanbari & Nowroozi, 2021).…”

“…Given the challenges that language teachers encountered, the existing literature illustrates various aspects of the impact of the pandemic crises such as EFL teachers" perceptions of online teaching (e.g., Khatoony & Nezhadmehr, 2020;Todd, 2020), online assessment (e.g., Chung & Choi, 2021;Ghanbari & Nowroozi, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021), and the development of online programs (e.g., Yi & Jang, 2020). An important point commonly addressed in the existing studies is language teachers" agentive and voluntary actions taken to redevelop their teaching techniques and methods reflecting on drastically shifting teaching modes, the English language and literacy development of EFL learners, and effective communications with their students.…”

Evaluation of an online teacher-made test through blackboard in an English as a foreign language writing context

“…The challenge of the efficiency of similar offline tests to measure the students' really performance levels arises amid the conduction of the test remotely and online. That means students take the test without any direct surveillance that may raise the concerns of teachers on their progress (Fitriyah & Jannah, 2021;Ghanbari & Nowroozi, 2021).…”