ABSTRACT
COVID-19 began in China (2019) and spread to other nations and become a world pandemic (2020). The news media and social media platforms have played an important role in information dissemination about the Coronavirus throughout the world. During COVID-19 Pandemic, social media has become a key tool for enhancing social networking and information sharing via the web. As more people turn to the internet for health information, social media platforms are helping to spread life-saving precautions that individuals, families, and communities may take to reduce their chance of contracting the virus. Language learners are linked to interactive social media platforms in Social Media Language Learning. The goal of this study was to look at the role of social media during COVID in foreign language acquisition. The participants in this study were Saudi Arabian college students. The study's sample comprised 200 (n=200) college students, and the social media platforms investigated included Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat and other platforms. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. The results indicated that the students used various social media platforms in order to get the appropriate information about the virus that indirectly helped and motivated them learning a new language. These learners lack the self-motivation needed to use social media to develop their English language abilities. The study discovered that adopting online social media during a pandemic for English language learning had a significant impact on interactions with peers and teachers. © 2022 Aesthetics Media Services. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to provide insights into English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ beliefs regarding learner autonomy at the Indonesian senior high school level. The study followed a sequential mixed-method that employed questionnaires and interviews for data collection. Eighteen EFL senior high school teachers were recruited to participate in this study. It was found that the EFL teachers showed very positive beliefs toward learner autonomy. They associated learner autonomy with the concept of learners’ initiative and independence to learn without any compulsions from the teacher. While, EFL teachers perceived their learners as less autonomous in learning, they had made some efforts to promote learner autonomy, such as maximizing the use of the internet and existing resources, emphasizing freedom in learning, and motivating learning. However, inadequate school facilities and learners’ low motivation became teachers’ constraints in promoting learner autonomy. Therefore, even though EFL teachers knew the importance of learner autonomy, they could not expect optimum development. This reveals the need for special attention from policymakers regarding learner autonomy in online teaching and learning. © 2022 Kasetsart University.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought drastic changes in the teaching and learning of EFL, not least through the increased use of ICT and web 3.0 technologies. As part of this phenomenon, blogs have become a widely used technique for assisting foreign language acquisition. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the use of blogs has a significant impact on the development of reading skills in English learners. The study was based on 106 participants (57 male and 49 female) from a private secondary school in the central highland region of Ecuador, with an age-range from 12 to 19 years. A nonparametric-experimental design was applied to the whole sample, who were pre-tested, given reading development instruction, and then post-tested. The pre-test and post-test were adapted from the Cambridge Preliminary English Test (PET) and consisted of 5 multiple choice comprehension questions, 5 scanning questions and 6 fill in the gap questions. In the instructional phase, the participants engaged in 6 sessions of asynchronous and 6 sessions of synchronous study, in which a variety of digital resources such as Kahoot, Nearpod, Educaplay, Liveworksheets, Padlet, Quizzis, British Council, Quizzlet and others, were employed to contribute to students' communicative competence. Data tendencies and normality were measured through the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, which was 0.000;while Wilcoxon was used to corroborate the hypothesis. The results showed a significant improvement of 66.9% in the students' reading skills through the use of web 3.0 blogs. Findings of the research show that the integration of web 3.0 technologies, specifically blogs foster learners' oral and written interaction, being reading the keystone of the whole process. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Within the span of the past two years, modern technologies have induced major changes in education. It is primarily the Covid-19 pandemic that has altered the way of foreign language instruction. Therefore, this paper attempts to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of Slovak university EFL learners towards online English language learning. Altogether 188 participants completed a survey, indicating their level of agreement on a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The research results indicate that the students either agree or are neutral to the majority of statements involving their conditions for online learning and developing particular language skills and systems. However, it should be also emphasized that some challenges of online learning, such as visiting social networking sites or chatting with peers for non-academic purposes, were also detected to some degree. It is necessary to conduct further studies in this area so that the teaching and learning process is facilitated and ultimately becomes more effective © 2022. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning.All Rights Reserved.