ABSTRACT
This study explored South Korean parents’ satisfaction with public English education during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic and its sudden educational disruption have posed unprecedented challenges for teachers, students, school administrators, and parents to ensure the continuity of quality education for all. Using a nationwide survey and semi-structured interview methods, this study examined the personal and social factors that affected parental satisfaction with emergency public English education in South Korea during the COVID-19 crisis. The survey results showed that while parental dissatisfaction was a shared psychological response across social class and gender, parents were more satisfied with in-person instruction and synchronous learning. The interviews revealed that their dissatisfaction with online, especially asynchronous learning, led to a low sense of self-efficacy over the management of children’s education and growing concerns over the English divide. This research highlights the multidimensionality of parental satisfaction in the social crisis as it involves individual responses and beliefs as well as contingent public health and educational policies. © 2022 KASELL. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
With the spread of COVID-19 worldwide, teaching and learning have occurred remotely and on digital platforms. An abrupt transition to online education, however, has posited unprecedented challenges for educators, who have been forced to adjust to remote learning with little to no time to prepare. Focusing on the case of an English language program in South Korea, this case study examines the challenges and strategies that were emerging in the crisis-prompted online language learning and teaching context. In particular, this case study focuses on investigating what types of strategies English as-a foreign language (EFL) instructors with little prior experience teaching online used to create a sustainable and authentic technology-mediated language learning environment, and how they motivated language learners to actively participate in sustainable language development and use. Findings provide educators and administrators who have little to no experience teaching online with practical suggestions and ideas to consider. They can use these concepts to adapt their lesson plans to online platforms and design and deliver high-quality lessons that ensure students feel connected to their learning process and have sustainable language learning experiences.