The Views of Students Towards Foreign Language Literacy Through Synchronous Distance Education

Abstract

The process of education has been affected mostly by the COVD-19 pandemic process, and distance education methods are getting popular. In line with this situation, the aims of this study are to examine the opinions of prep-class university students on foreign language literacy via synchronous distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic process, to analyse their experiences, and to make forward-looking suggestions. This research has been designed as a case study which consisted of 78 university students (43 male, 35 female) studying at the preparatory classes comprised of different faculties of a state university in Turkey during 2019- 2020 academic year. The data of the study were collected with a questionnaire form consisting of open-ended questions. The data obtained from the research were subjected to content analysis, and the findings were supported by direct quotations from students’ statements. The results showed that comfortable learning atmosphere at home and easy time management are appreciated whereas technical problems and distraction factors affect learning process negatively. Practical applications like online dictionaries increase motivation and transform learning process into a fun activity. On the other hand, decreased participation and lack of face-to-face language practice opportunities cause low motivation and affect the language learning process adversely. In terms of acquiring language skills, it has been found out that SDE slows down skill training, time allocated for speaking practice is not sufficient, and traditional teaching methods are preferred; however, reading is thought to be relatively more appropriate for SDE compared to other language skills. Last but not least another positive finding of the study is that lecturers’ time management skills, professional knowledge, and technological competence are appreciated by the students.

Views of the Students Learning Turkish as a Foreign Language on Distance Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This result is in line with the findings by Mahibur Rahman (2020) who observed that students were negatively affected by the lack of interaction opportunities. The study by Dolmacı and Dolmacı (2020) reported that the participating foreign language educators also considered teaching listening skills through distance education as problematic and difficult like the students in other studies.…”

“…Other studies also reported weak internet connection and limited internet quota as the most important problems (Allo, 2020;Aryanti, 2020;Atmojo & Nugruho, 2020;Efriana, 2021;Famularsih, 2020;Farrah & Al-Bakry, 2020;Manibur Rahman, 2020;Öztürk Karataş & Tuncer, 2020;Tawhida, 2020;Tirtanawati, 2021). Dolmacı and Dolmacı (2020) conducted a study with foreign language educators and found that instructors too stated technical inadequacies and connection problems created problems in online courses. That some students did not have computers, tablets, and mobile phones to participate in distance education was also reported in the study.…”

“…More than half of the students considered online exams to be negative experiences due to internet connection problems, bottlenecks in the system, cheating, and inability to ask teachers questions about exam parts they did not understand. Dolmacı and Dolmacı (2020) reported that foreign language educators regarded online exams as negative due to reasons such as technical problems emanating from the internet, technology, lack of supervision during the exams, inability to prevent cheating, and low exam reliability and objectivity. Farrah and Al-Bakry (2020) and Mahibur Rahman (2020) mentioned that students cheating in online exams bothered other students.…”

Emergency Remote Learning in Higher Education in Cyprus during COVID-19 Lockdown: A Zoom-Out View of Challenges and Opportunities for Quality Online Learning

“…Limited teacher-student and student-student interaction: Students' difficulties in communicating with their instructors and peers and in building relationships online due to a lack of face-to-face contact was one of the main challenges of ERL reported in the international literature [11,18,24,50,[80][81][82]. In Cyprus also, almost half of the study participants highlighted that they found online learning challenging because they could not ask their instructor as many questions or have a discussion with them as they would in face-to-face classes.…”