Online language learning and teacher-student interaction: experience of students and instructors

Abstract

Online language learning has become a household term after the Covid-19 pandemic which has played havoc all over the world. To avoid disruptions in educational activities, the education providers, mainly at the tertiary level, switched to virtual learning using different platforms. This study investigates the strengths and weaknesses of online language learning from the perception of ESL students and their instructors and pays attention to the occurrence of teacher-student interaction in online classes at a Sri Lankan university called the South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. A preliminary survey with a larger number of students was followed by a concise online survey with a part of those students. Discussions were held with the volunteer students and selected instructors were met personally for interviews. At the end of the discussions, written submissions were obtained in response to open-ended questions from the students and instructors. The findings revealed that students preferred to have traditional learning due to the reasons connected to their cognitive development and prevailing technical issues in online learning. Instructors also preferred traditional learning to online learning. However, both students and instructors felt that students’ performance anxiety was lower in online classes that induces them to have teacher-student interaction. It was also revealed that only those students whose language proficiency is higher involved in interaction while others remained passive irrespective of online or traditional classes. Hence, future studies are needed to investigate how students’ anxiety influences students’ involvement in classes and the pedagogical training needs of the instructors.