Screening EFL Teachers’ and Learners’ Perceptions of Emergency Remote Teaching During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Abstract Virtual, distant and blended learning are not unheard of and have been practiced in ELT context for quite a while; however, the abrupt shift to online education during COVID-19 was entirely different from the actual online education (Hodges et al., 2020), and it should rather be named as Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT). In effect, the present mixed-methods study aimed to screen EFL teachers’ and learners’ perceptions of ERT classes as well as discovering the probable (non)alignment between their attitudes. Hence, 20 EFL teachers and 30 learners were invited for the qualitative phase of the study who underwent semi-structured interviews. Moreover, 34 EFL teachers and 70 learners participated in the quantitative phase by responding a self-report questionnaire on their experiences with ERT classes. The data from the questionnaire helped researchers gain a general profile of the participants’ attitudes as both groups expressed satisfaction with ERT which indicated relative alignment between their perceptions. The qualitative analysis of teachers’ data manifested two thematic categories: 1) engaging online EFL learners, and 2) enhancing receptive and productive skills via online instruction. Besides, EFL learners’ data revealed their belief in: 1) enhancing digital competence and technological knowledge, and 2) improving communicative language learning through online instruction. The findings contributed to ELT teachers’ awareness of applying online instruction to elevate EFL learners’ technological knowledge, to improve teaching receptive and productive skills, and to create an interactive learning atmosphere through meticulous selection of tasks and activities in order for the learners to be passionately engaged in classroom communication.