Pre-Service English Language Teachers’ Readiness for Online Teaching

Abstract

As a consequence of the sudden global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, all the countries around the world, including Turkey, had to adopt online education as a substitute for face-to-face education; thus, leading to a radical and unprecedented transformation. In this respect, pre-service teachers’ readiness for online teaching gained greater significance as they had to switch from face-to-face teaching to online teaching. Accordingly, this study aims to identify pre-service English language teachers’ (PELTs) readiness for online teaching. A qualitative research design was adopted in this research. The data were collected through an open-ended survey from 45 PELTs who study at the English language teaching department of a state university in Turkey. The technique of content analysis was employed for the analysis of the data gathered. The findings indicated that even though some of the PELTs perceived themselves as ready to teach online, their expectations from their department/faculty were far from being satisfied in terms of improving their technology integration skills into their instruction. Moreover, a great majority of the PELTs expressed their worries about insufficient technological equipment and technical problems in their future classrooms.