The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on EFL Classes through the Lenses of Secondary Learners

Abstract

With Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19), a major change to the remote education arrangements has arisen. As it is clear, the pandemic has got side effects, especially in the scope of education and English as foreign language (EFL) teaching. Students at all levels were encouraged to continue learning despite the difficulties they had throughout the crisis. This study aims to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the field of EFL, particularly by revealing the viewpoints of secondary school students on pandemic remote education and its impact on their English language learning process. Thus, it was designed as qualitative research; interviews were held to probe indepth into their perceptions on EFL teaching throughout pandemic remote education. Interviews were conducted with thirty secondary school students chosen voluntarily. The participants were chosen from different schools. The data obtained from the interviews were analysed through qualitative content analysis by NVivo 8 software program. The results revealed that participants declared that most of the teachers used course books and gave pencil-paper assignments. It was also highlighted that teachers emphasised reading and listening skills in their lessons rather than writing and speaking. Another significant finding of the study is that the participants preferred face-to-face foreign language teaching to remote teaching. Nevertheless, they admitted that online language teaching has several advantages comparing to traditional face-to-face education besides its challenges such as technical, economic, contextual, and individual problems. Lastly, several noteworthy suggestions were made regarding teachers, policymakers, families, and students themselves.