LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:5 May 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

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         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Online English Language Teaching (OELT) at the Tertiary Level
During Covid-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh:
Problems and Solutions for Future Adaptability

Prodyut Paul, M.A. English Language and Literature

Abstract

The devastating nature of Covid-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the education sector throughout the world. To mitigate the apparent academic loss due to the closure of educational institutions online teaching was introduced. As a result, a sudden chaotic situation came into being in terms of ELT teaching. Bangladesh also started conducting online classes at the tertiary level during this period. Though this endeavour had many positives, at the same time many problems started to surface. It was found that there was a lack of technical resources and knowledge of ICT among teachers and students alike. Many teachers and students preferred face to face classes to online classes. They had negative attitudes toward online classes. Hence active participation was not taking place. Emergency OELT is more complicated than the usual OELT course since there is no sound theoretical base for them. There is still a looming possibility of Covid-19 creating further closure of the educational institutes if the infection rate increases. So, to make sure if that scenario ever happens again OELT is a viable solution to face to face ELT classes a well-planned theory of OELT, uninterrupted technical and financial support, counselling and mental support for teachers and learners are paramount.

Keywords: Covid-19, Bangladesh, online language teaching, problems, solutions, adaptability.

1. Introduction

The covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly has had an unprecedented impact on the education system throughout the world. “The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has directly impacted the education of learners all over the globe”( Moser et. Al,2021). It resulted in massive academic loss due to unavoidable situations and psychological problems in learners. To counter this countries around the world had to resort to an alternative approach to teaching namely online teaching. (Besser et al.,2020; Favale et al., 2020; Rajhans et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020). Educational institutions all over the world had to shift from conventional education to distance (online) learning system as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (Ta'amneh, 2021).

Due to this pandemic, all the schools, colleges and universities in Bangladesh were closed on March 18, 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, increasing the impetus for online education systems. (Ta'amneh, 2021). “English language education in Bangladesh has always been problematic” (Rahman & Pandian, 2018) and the necessary movement towards online ELT has complicated the situation further.

Though schools, colleges and universities have been conducting ELT using multifarious online platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Team as well as social media platforms such as Facebook, What’s App, YouTube etc. (Chen et al, 2020) the expected result from this endeavour has not been achieved. There have been some contexts where OELT has seen some success but at the same time, it has been met with several problems. This article is going to focus on the problems of OELT at the tertiary level of education in the context of Bangladesh and probable solutions for future adaptability.

2. Literature Review

There are many related existing studies on the perspective of ESL but not EFL in the context of Online English Language Teaching. (Afrin, 2020) Especially in the case of emergency online language teaching, there are very few studies. This is because the world has never faced anything like Covid -19 before. Though many studies have focused on related issues, very few studies have delved into the aspects that will be discussed in this study.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Prodyut Paul
M.A. in English Language and Literature
Lecturer in English
Bangamata Sheikh Fojilatunnesa Mujib Science and Technology University
Jamalpur, Bangladesh
prodyut@bsfmstu.ac.bd
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