Investigating EAP Online Teaching Constraints During Covid-19 Outbreak: Teacher's Perception

ABSTRACT

The requirement for English proficiency in tertiary education positions EAP in an advantageous position in language teaching and research. EAP's strengths stem from broad theoretical foundations and a commitment to research-based language education. As a result, the course has begun to reveal some of the constraints that participants must overcome. As part of the EAP course, EAP Teachers face obstacles and challenges throughout the teaching-learning process, particularly during the pandemic, when teaching and learning must take place entirely online. The purpose of this study was to determine the constraints faced by teachers when teaching EAP online to non-English language students. The research was conducted through a qualitative case study involving 15 UNS Language Center EAP teachers. Semi-structured and open-ended interviews were used to collect data. This study discovered that there are some applications used by the teachers to conduct online learning such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Zoom Meeting, Google Meet, Google Classroom, and Quizziz. Teachers faced numerous constraints when teaching EAP, including the heterogeneity of students' English skills within a class, teachers' inexperience with online teaching media, communication gaps, time management, students' motivation, anxiety caused by a new system, and limited internet access. This study concludes that online learning presents difficulties for both teachers and students when it comes to learning EAP. The findings of this study are expected to provide an overview of online EAP learning, allowing for the identification of solutions to these difficulties and the future improvement of online EAP learning. © 2021 ACM.