Teaching During COVID-19

Abstract

Distance education has been gaining importance, especially as a result of the rapid and continuing developments in the internet and information and communications technologies. However, its being beneficial and effective has been discussed by educational researchers. Due to their lack of practice or experiences in distance teaching, a great number of teachers feel prejudiced toward distance learning. This study aims to have a deeper understanding of how novice distance teachers, who have just begun to teach English at a distance during the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic, experienced distance teaching. The study was conducted at a state university in Turkey in the 2019-2020 spring term. The participants of the study were two English language instructors with a teaching experience of 10+ years. Descriptive analysis of semi-structured interviews and the researcher's affiliation with the cases as an insider helped to reveal the personal, teaching, and technical/technological issues which affect the participants' experiences of distance teaching.