The Affordances of Video Conferencing Tools in Synchronous Online Sessions in the Turkish EFL Context

Abstract

In 2020, video conferencing went from a novelty to a necessity, and its usage skyrocketed due to shelter-in-place throughout the world. However, there is a scarcity of academic research on the psychological effects and mechanisms of video conferencing, and scholars need tools to understand this drastically scaled usage. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand EFL teachers’ expectations and needs for video conferencing tools. 578 English as a foreign language education teachers who live in Turkey participated in this study. Mixed-methods research was used to analyze the survey results. The findings of this study can be used to guide the selection of appropriate videoconferencing systems for educational purposes. They also provide information on how to investigate teaching methods and pedagogies for online education. This study also includes a series of suggestions for how to improve videoconferencing tools.