ABSTRACT
The era of COVID-19 compelled universities to design and deliver courses online. However, the successful design and delivery of online courses should embrace community. This study correlates the actual use of text interaction in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) virtual classes (VC) and its impact on the sense of virtual community (SOVC). To achieve the study's goal, three groups of preparatory year (PY) students at Najran University studying online through Blackboard in the era of COVID-19 represent the participants. The study used data sources of the analysis of nine archival data of Reading course, Listening and Speaking course, and Writing course VC using Schullo model and the SOVC questionnaire adopted from Koh and Kim and an individual interview of nine instructors to get thorough interpretations of text interaction during VC. The study provided detailed information about what type(s) of text interaction participants used in EFL virtual classrooms. It also explored the impact of VC text interaction on EFL students' SOVC. The study found that text interaction in EFL VC enhanced students' SOVC. The findings supported that text interaction had both academic and social values. The study contributed to the theory of SOVC and brought recommendations on how educators can take advantage of VC text interaction in the EFL context.
ABSTRACT
With the emergency shift to remote learning due to the spread of COVID-19 and the advent of communication technology, developing digital online media literacy (DOML) has become necessary for Saudi English as foreign language (EFL) students. Media literacy empowers EFL students to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce digital online media texts. The preparatory year (PY) is a bridging year that links school outcomes to university demands. This study examines the competences in DOML among students in PY at Saudi University. It also examines whether any differences can be attributed to gender. To accomplish this, a four-dimensional survey of 36 items was adapted from T. Hallaq's (Hallaq, 2016) to serve EFL context. The simple sample consisted of 170 respondents (85 males and 85 females). The results showed that the respondents are competent in DOML (m=3.73), and that there were no statistical differences between females and males. This result indicates that the respondents are ready for the emergency remote learning. Both males and females are subject to the same homogeneous educational system. The paper concludes with some pedagogical implications for emergency remote EFL learning. Copyright © 2020 by Academic Publishing House Researcher s.r.o.