As ESL and TESOL programs moved to an online or remote teaching mode rather rapidly during the first half of 2020, many of the practical elements of face-to-face teaching needed to be reconciled in the new mode. Likewise, in a TESOL teacher training unit at Macquarie University, Australia, highly practical elements of the unit needed to be changed to an online mode in line with the new restrictions. In order to address these challenges, online microteaching activities were implemented, employing the principles of Learning-Oriented Assessment (LOA) and learner autonomy. Responding to the students’ needs, a series of asynchronous tasks were created using VoiceThread, a multimodal asynchronous interactive platform, and enabling tasks facilitated by a combination of videos, interactive H5P tasks and forums. We have found that the new approach not only met the Unit Learning Outcomes (ULOs), including the practical application of teaching methodologies, but also had further advantages. The additional strengths of the approach include increased feedback literacy, and information and communication technology (ICT) skills for students, developing autonomy as learners and teachers, and developing a community and fostering engagement. The present task design is applicable to English for specific purposes (ESP) and general English teaching contexts in both fully online and face-to-face delivery modes.
2025-10-10
Mobile apps have been shown to enhance students' motivation in the learning of English. With the outbreak of the corona virus, where safe distancing became one of the strategies to limit its propagation, WhatsApp became a practical medium for delivering content for us at the Ecole normale supérieure de Yaoundé. This article illustrates how we used a WhatsApp forum to run a class project on summary writing, which required each student to watch a movie online and write a holistic summary of it. The summaries were intended to be part of the entries for a database of resources for the study of African cultures, which have parallels to classical mythology. Four weeks into the second semester, Covid-19 forced a complete shutdown of our university. As part of the movie online exercise, we created the African Mythology WhatsApp group or forum. Lessons on “how-to” were conducted via WhatsApp. At the end of 7 weeks of online interaction in a class of 32 students and teachers, students reported that the WhatsApp experiment enhanced their writing skills, including the ability to write holistic summaries. Some students said their creativity was developed, and academic horizons widened. A few stated that the WhatsApp learning experience was better than the usual face-to-face class interaction. We concluded that there are clear benefits for using WhatsApp in the teaching and learning of writing. We should continue to explore the opportunities that technology offers for language education as a whole.
The paper reports on how I sought to develop and maintain a positive rapport with my students during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis conducting emergency remote teaching (ERT). Due to the transition from face-to-face classroom interaction to online teaching and learning, and the subsequent physical distancing, opportunities to develop close relations with students were reduced. One strategy to deal with this problem that I explored was to change the way I provided written feedback to students. I noticed that my feedback prior to the crisis, using the review tool in Word, tended to maintain an authoritative voice using imperatives such as ‘change to …’; ‘look at …’. I sought to move away from this voice by employing Walker's (2004) DISCOUNT coding system, which presents different communicative moves drawing on Socratic dialogue. I complemented this coding system using modal verbs such as ‘may’ and ‘should’ rather than imperatives to further increase dialogism (Kress & Hodge, 1979, p. 122; Fairclough, 2001, p. 105). It was surmised that this strategy for providing feedback might help to reduce the affective barriers constructed by the physical distance enforced during the crisis. Students’ comments about the feedback structure are shared demonstrating that this strategy is correlated with a supportive and caring approach. Additionally, it was observed that some students also engaged in similar dialogic communication when sending redrafts back. Consequently, it is concluded that the strategy aided in building rapport with students during emergency remote teaching (ERT), but it is too early to hypothesise to what extent it played a role. The next step in the research, as I continue to teach entirely online in the coming semester, is to interview students to ask their views on the use of Socratic dialogue and hedging in text-based communication, and its relationship to building tutor-student rapport.
Individual support is crucial to help learners improve, but is complicated in times of digital teaching and physical distancing. The present paper demonstrates how individual support can nevertheless be accomplished in digital ELT (English language teaching). It reports on two teacher education courses in Germany that were conducted in a purely digital form as a response to the unprecedented coronavirus situation in 2020. The purpose of these courses was two-fold: On the one hand, the aim was to develop preservice teachers’ (PTs’) skills of providing individual support to their prospective EFL (English as a foreign language) learners by means of screencast feedback (SCFB). On the other hand, the teacher educator (TE) sought to offer individual support to the PTs in order to promote their feedback skills and advance their English language proficiency even further, especially with respect to academic writing. The multifaceted challenges arising from this complex objective were met through a peer SCFB approach that resorted to a purposeful combination of live webmeetings and individual consultations as well as software tutorials, instructor-generated videos and step-bystep manuals. Also, regular polls and screensharing during the webmeetings helped to keep track of the PTs’ progress and understanding. In addition, online surveys gave the PTs room for regular reflection and provided the TE with opportunities for formative assessment. Finally, cognitive, affective and strategic support was offered through group work in digital breakout rooms as well as through individual consultations with the TE and the tutor. Given the novelty of the digital course design, the paper will close with a reflection on its affordances and challenges and suggest potential modifications for future teaching and research.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought sweeping and unplanned changes in education worldwide. This time of fully online instruction has revealed that there is much to understand and learn about the various stakeholders involved in the online learning experience. The purpose of this mixed-methods case study was to examine the perceptions and experiences of Chinese university students taking an English language development course entirely online using synchronous and asynchronous learning platforms. Quantitative data was collected using a pre-course survey (N=103) and a postcourse survey (N=66). Quantitative data compared student pre-course and post-course perceptions and experiences of online learning. Qualitative data were collected in each survey via an openended question and further explored perceptions and experiences. Following the post-course survey, additional qualitative data were collected by an open-ended questionnaire completed by a small group of survey participants (N=5). Qualitative data showed that students found studying online convenient and helpful for developing English language skills but were concerned about self-regulation, communication, and wi-fi or Internet connectivity. Analyses of the quantitative data revealed statistically significant differences between the pre-course and post-course survey responses concerning language skill development. Additional survey findings were differences between before and after survey responses relating to instructor feedback and devices used to access online classes. Overall, the study found that 64.2% of participants would take another English language development course online.
When Covid-19 spread and became a serious health threat to the world in the earlier part of 2020, many university English language teaching (ELT) practitioners moved their classes online. Not only did ELT practitioners have to master the technicalities of an online application (e.g., Zoom), they had to go ahead without much foresight; teaching a full module online was basically unchartered waters for many of them. Moreover, it was largely unknown what impact an online module might have on student learning. This paper is about an academic writing module that was fully taught online in the National University of Singapore for the first time. It presents some of the changes made in the online mode, feedback from students on their learning online and recommendations. The data comes from the four classes of students (58 responses) I taught in the first semester of academic year 2020/2021 (13 weeks, Aug - Nov, 2020).
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