ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted English language teaching (ELT) in many ways, and it has pushed language educators to the limit. Due to the shift to virtual education, the non-mediated in-person support that many instructors used to acknowledge their students‟ needs, is no longer available. A question of significant relevance to this ongoing emergency shift is: How do English language instructors differentiate remote instruction? Differentiated Remote Instruction (DRI) is the pedagogical approach that is needed for successful e-learning and remote teaching. Guided by three main research questions, this study examines the adoption and challenges of differentiated remote instruction (DRI) in online classrooms by English language college instructors during COVID-19 in the Saudi context. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach, and the examination is based on online surveys filled out by 172 English language instructors and a thematic analysis of six semi-structured interviews. Analysis has yielded interesting findings on the differentiation practices and challenges among virtual language instructors. Findings show that there are some factors related to 1) students;2) instructors;and 3) technological issues that affect and challenge the implementation of DRI in EFL virtual classrooms. Moreover, despite the DRI challenges faced by the EFL instructors, they did attempt to find methods to deal with them. These methods were related to effective teaching through online platforms (LMS), early diagnosis and interventions for problem and weak learners, specific tailoring of lessons and activities, and dedicating one-on-one online sessions for students in need. © 2022 Sciedu Press. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The emergency transition to online learning due to COVID-19 has forced many sectors to respond quickly. The readiness of educational institutes to attend to the abrupt crisis and shift to teach remotely is practiced at different levels. Online assessment is one of them. Rapid advances in technology and software applications are changing the practices of assessment in innumerable ways. Teachers are encouraged to implement a diverse array of assessment methods to measure the learning process of their students in an online environment which may not be the same as conventional learning. Therefore, the current study aims to explore teachers' perspectives about online assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Saudi context. This study endeavours to shed light on this aspect of online assessment by answering the main question of challenges and benefits faced by English teachers in an online environment. The study was qualitative in nature deploying semi-structured interviews with English instructors to collect data about the researched matter. The findings revealed that the most preferred online assessment tool teachers used to implement was the multiple-choice format. Also, the analysis showed that challenges associated with online assessment were diverse, and some of them were handled appropriately while others remained. For the advantages, they worked in favour of teachers, students and department. This was observed in the opportunities online assessment could provide to save time, easiness to design, take and record and objectivity in marking. Implications and recommendations were offered for further direction and research.
ABSTRACT
For ages, teaching and learning face-to-face has been very popular and considered the best way to achieve knowledge and accomplish academic activities. However, during the Covid-19 Pandemic, where on the one side, the whole world was searching for a solution to cope with the situation on the other side online learning demonstrated a substantial alternative. The present paper aimed to investigate the teachers and students' perceptions of the emergency online learning process, especially for intensive English writing courses. The study is descriptive using the qualitative research methodology. The two focus groups (teacher and student) are interviewed, consisting of 42 participants, asking open-ended questions mainly about the benefits and challenges of the writing course during the Pandemic. The paper ends with the teachers and students' positive response that indicates the thrilled and jubilant welcome of the synchronized online/virtual learning in the latest situation that emerged due to the Pandemic. Eventually, the study discussed the quality assurance efforts, particularly towards the spontaneous conduction of lectures infused with motivation, responsibility, discipline, and flexibility offered without any interruption. The Internet proved a great learning tool in assuring many resources.