Anda Roofi' Kusumaningrum is a graduate student of English Department of Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. She is interested in research focused on textbook analysis, and teacher professional development.

Andhika Wahyu Rustamaji is a Graduate Students of the English Department of Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. His research interests are in the areas of Early Language Learning, Teacher Education, and English Language Teacher Preparation.

Eric Dheva Tachta Armada is a Graduate Students of the English Department of Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. His research interests are in the areas of Technology Enhanced Learning, ICT in Education and Digital Media in Education.

Rahmadilla Kurniasari is a graduate student of the English Department of Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia.  She is interested in research focused on teaching English with technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK).

 

Distance learning and face-to-face learning

The shift from conventional class to distance learning is inevitable, not because of Covid-19, but it is just a matter of time. The advancement of technology gives its own incentive for professional teachers to further innovate in the teaching and learning process. Online classes are expected to be an alternative that will replace conventional classes. In his article Singh (2019) stated that the term online class was first used in 1995 when web-based systems were employed and introduced WebCT as the first Learning Management System (LMS). According to (Bates, 2014) afterwards, new terms have emerged relating to online classes, such as e-learning, blended learning, online education, online courses, distance learning etc. Distance learning itself has advantages that will never be found in conventional classes where students and teachers have greater flexibility.

Conventional class in this case refers to a face-to-face learning method that was used long before distance learning and it was less effective during pandemic time. However, conventional classes are like two sides of a coin. They offer many advantages that distance learning does not offer. It is the interaction between teachers and students. Because the teacher has full authority over managing the course of the class, which is the complete opposite of distance class.

Comparing both face to face and distance learning, distance learning has the amount of quantity being offered and it creates some spaces for teachers to grow even further. For both EFL teachers and students it will greatly impact the learning system during the pandemic outbreak. And this one also gives students a freedom to understand themselves better and realize what their potential is. When they realize it, they will automatically be more confident and also reduce their anxiety.

Anxiety becomes our major concern because when the students have anxiety in the learning process, it will increase affective filter and hinder the language acquisition process. The term affective filter itself can be described as the mental block that the students have during the process of second language acquisition. The lower affective filters that the students have, the higher they acquire the language. In contrast, the higher affective filters they have, the more difficult they are for acquiring language. The levels of students' affective filters are affected by three categories of feeling such as motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety (Krashen, 1982).

When students enjoy the activity, the affective filter will automatically reduce, and students may easily absorb the language they are going to learn.

 

Challenges faced by a teacher during digital learning

The success of online learning can be seen through the process of teaching and learning. However, the teachers, particularly EFL teachers, may have difficulties in the process of it. Since there are four skills that need to be taught even in online teaching, the teachers face some challenges to conduct it. The following explanation will explain the challenges that may be occurred briefly.

 

Teachers have limited interaction of video meeting

The teachers only have once in a month to interact with students using video meetings. Having this limited chance makes the teachers quite difficult in conducting speaking class. Since speaking classes need students’ attention frequently and students’ participation actively, this short time cannot provide an effective speaking activity for them. To overcome this, the teachers have an idea to have a video meeting on another day outside the decided schedule. However, when the teachers are intended to do it, the students show disapproval for this idea. They think that the video meeting has its own schedule. Moreover, they said that having the video meeting the other day is breaking the rules.

 

Lower student’s willingness to open the camera during synchronous learning

Both teachers and students can interact in synchronous learning by opening camera features. By opening the camera, it means that the students are ready to attend the class. However, most of the students neglect it. The students who join the meeting are only half of the total. The teachers often talk to the screen instead of the students because they do not open their camera. As a consequence, the learning looks like one sided interaction. The teachers have no idea what the students are doing when they join a video meeting. The students’ account may join the meeting, while the students do the other activities.

 

No feedback for the teachers

Ideally, when the teachers have explained material, the students give a response by giving any feedback such as comment or opinion towards what the teachers have taught. This indicates that the students pay attention to what the teachers are delivering. By doing this, it means that the students critically respond to the material. Therefore, feedback also can be used to know the extent of students’ understanding. However, in fact the students’ often give no feedback for the teachers. They are usually quiet during the learning process. They tend to be passive when the teachers ask some questions.

 

Silent majority

The uproar in the classroom can be used as a benchmark to see how enthusiastic students respond during their teaching and learning activities. Occasionally, during field practice, many things do not go as planned by the teacher. For example, the class tends to be quiet, and the students do not really respond to what is conveyed by the teacher. According to the previous teachers we interviewed, this was due to a variety of factors, including student motivation issues, which resulted in a lack of enthusiasm to respond to what the teacher said, or the students' lack of understanding of the material being discussed.

 

Negative student response

Responding to this problem, the teacher who became our participant took an initiative and made a flashcard with speaking as her major skill. The platform she uses during the teaching and learning process is MS Teams. In MS Teams, there are various features that can be utilized to support student activities. One of the features is the voice notes, but during the lesson there are only a few students who answer or participate. And the students, who answer the teacher's questions willingly, are the same students who are active in the class, whereas the passive students do not even respond to the teacher's questions or tasks.

 

Student’s anxiety

If a student believes that something is meaningless, they will instantly avoid it. When the students feel anxious, labelling anything dumb or useless is an easy way to regain control of their minds. We discover that anxiety is defined as the feelings of fear, trepidation, and unease. The major causes of failure were:

• Boring Courses,
• Lack of Motivation,
• Lack of Feedback and Encouragement,
• Dissatisfaction with Requirements.

Throughout this case, anxiety would not be about general concern about utilizing information technology, but rather about interactions with material and processes that might lead to mistakes in logic, judgement, and comprehension, resulting in poor performance (lower grades).

 

Teacher’s problem-solving strategies

Teacher strategy can be established as a plan method or activity design. It is conducted to attain specific educational objectives and to overcome the challenges, our participants provide some strategies to conduct effective learning activity during the teaching and learning process. The following explanation will explain the teachers’ strategies conducting online teaching for speaking skill:

 

Voice note

One of the platforms being used during asynchronous learning is WhatsApp, although in WhatsApp there are only a few features that can be utilized during the teaching and learning process. Our participants did not run out of ideas, she uses a voice note feature to make students more active during the discussion session through WhatsApp. The basic idea is, after the teacher gives a set of tasks to the student (in this case speaking task) they should respond the task by using a voice note feature with specified time limit.

 

Checking students’ readiness

The second strategy is, by checking the students’ readiness. The teacher asks the students’ readiness during synchronous or asynchronous learning. In the case of synchronous learning, the teacher asks the students to turn on the camera, to check students’ readiness during the lesson. “Are you ready to join the English lesson class?” The teacher makes rules that the teacher and the students should turn on the camera. Turning on the camera is very important because speaking sessions need direct communication, despite virtual video conferences. So, that the teacher, students, and their peers have direct interaction. It is expected that the classroom will be more communicative.

 

Drawing students’ attention

The third strategy involves drawing students’ attention. During online learning, sometimes the teachers received no feedback or response from the students. The teacher can draw students’ attention through actively questioning students “Hello, are you there?” The teacher can ask a question related to the topic. But the teacher should start the question with very easy questions such as yes-no questions. The teacher states her/his question, and then says the student’s name to answer the question. If the students feel anxiety when they speak in English, the teacher needs to convince the students that it is okay to perform their performance and give positive appreciation after the students attempt to share their ideas in English. It can build the students’ confidence.

 

Motivational videos

Fourth strategy: How to overcome a quiet classroom? First, listening and speaking strategies. The teacher provides the students with some motivational videos. The students listen to the video/audio. The students can gain comprehensible input or build their schemata from the video such as knowing the vocabulary, glossary, pronunciation, and responding to the communication skill. Then comes drawing on cognitive and metacognitive strategies. The teacher examines the students by asking comprehension questions related to the video. The students should attempt to answer in English or do code-switching.

 

Peer feedback

Fifth strategy: Comments and recommendations or suggestions from classmates are referred to as peer feedback and this strategy is also known as peer-to-peer feedback. Teachers and students who are unaware of this strategy's benefits and objectives may be skeptical and believe it is a waste of time. Teachers must give specific instructions to facilitate the feedback providing process because of the task’s complexity. Some students claim that their peers do not provide them with helpful comments or suggestions. This style of thinking is most likely inspired by the belief that humans can only learn from experts, which stems from the concept of learners as passive receivers of knowledge. Students must attend pre-training courses in order for peer feedback to be effective. According to Rollinson (2005) at the ‘propaganda phase’, teachers can explain to students why receiving feedback from peers is beneficial. Peer feedback is a frequent strategy among professional writers, and students should be encouraged to do this.

 

Live classroom discussion

Last group of strategies: Live Classroom Discussion, the most popular strategy, that allows teachers to use their creativity, imaginations, or expertise and teachers are able to use digital tools for live classroom discussion. Consider the following suggestions to help teachers to make this strategy work best for the students:

• Encourage kids to discuss with a partner before responding to questions on the internet. Teachers could use a digital whiteboard to allow students to discuss. For example, teachers could use Whiteboard.fi and jamboard.
• Talk about students’ interpretations of questions, then explain or redirect their thinking.
• Use the student’s individual responses as models, and its usage of them may lead to more indepth discussion for the entire class.
• And consider which student voices you want to emphasize.

One of the most misunderstood high-effect size strategies is classroom discussion.

Creating interesting classroom conversations for students is a crucial component of many classes, according to many teachers. While that is a priority, teachers also want to leverage classroom discussions as a data source. The information may then be used to adapt the teacher's lesson to better suit the student’s requirements.

 

References

Bates, T. (2014). A short history of educational technology. Retrieved from https://tonybates.wpengine.com/2014/12/10/a-short-history-of-educational-technology/.

Krashen, S. 1982. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Southern California: Pergamon Press Inc.

Rollinson, P. (2005). Using peer feedback in the ESL writing class. ELT Journal, 59(1), 23-30.

Singh, V., & Thurman, A. (2019). How Many Ways Can We Define Online Learning? A Systematic Literature Review of Definitions of Online Learning (1988-2018). American Journal of Distance Education, 33(4), 289–306. DOI:10.1080/08923647.2019.1663082

 

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