Emergency Remote Teaching Practices of EAL Teachers

1. Emergency Remote Teaching
Practices of EAL
Teachers
ICEL 2021 Track 2: Humanising Online Teaching and Learning
Dr. Lee Kean Wah
University of Nottingham,
Malaysia
Junnie Lo
University of Nottingham,
Malaysia

2. Welcome
 THE PROBLEM
 RESEARCH DESIGN
 FINDINGS
 IMPLICATIONS

3. The problem
As a result of the COVID-19
pandemic, educators across the
globe were thrown into
emergency remote teaching (ERT)
with little warning.
Literature rapidly emerged, but
most focussed on general
education and higher education
contexts, with little said
about language learning.

4. The Research Questions
What are the key challenges that EAL
teachers have faced during ERT?
What solutions have they found to
mitigate these challenges?
How have EAL teachers embraced the
affordances of ERT?

5. Research
Design
Phenomenological study of
the experiences of six
teachers
Literature review
Thematic analysis of semi-
structured interviews via
Zoom
Activity Theory conceptual
framework

6. Engeström’s
2nd generation of
Activity
Theory

7. Q1. What are the key challenges
that EAL teachers have faced
during ERT?
ACCESSIBILITY
LEARNER
BEHAVIOUR
TEACHING
ACTIVITIES
 internet
connectivity
 access to
devices
 tech-savviness
 social inequity
 not engaging
with the
lesson
 not turning on
cameras or
microphones
 interaction
patterns
 technological
limitations
 giving feedback on
writing
 homework

8. Q2. What solutions have they
found to mitigate these
challenges?
IMPROVING
TECH-SAVVINESS
HAVING
EMPATHY
ADAPTING
ACTIVITIES
MANAGING
EXPECTATIONS

9. Improving
Tech-savviness
 Teachers became experts themselves so that
they could trouble-shoot when issues arose.
 They experimented outside of class until
they were comfortable with every feature of
their main platforms.
 They introduced features such as the chat
box, annotation, or polls gradually,
allowing learners to get comfortable with
one before introducing another.

10. Having
Empathy
 Empathy was a recurring theme throughout
the interviews, both directly and
indirectly.
 It played a crucial role in everything
from classroom management to planning,
homework, and communications between
lessons.
 5 tips included: welfare checks in
breakout rooms; negotiating homework;

11. one size
does not
fit all
Honigsfeld & Nordmeyer,
2020, p.49
Adapting
Activities
 There was conflicting advice. Don’t reinvent
the wheel, but do try new things. Over-plan,
but also improvise.
 Breakout rooms weren’t as popular with the
participants as they were in the general
literature.
 23 tips were grouped into 5 themes: general
teaching approach; starting and ending
classes; getting away from the screen;
“

12. Managing
Expectations
 Pressure to quickly adapt and provide
a quality learning experience didn’t
align with the realities of emergency
remote teaching.
 Burnout, anxiety and feelings of
inefficacy were well-documented in the
literature.
 Teachers must not be made to feel bad
when things go wrong, and should be

13. Q3. How have EAL teachers
embraced the affordances of
ERT?
EXPLOITING
NEW TOOLS
CONNECTING
IMPROVING &
INNOVATING
 interaction through
breakout rooms,
annotation, chat, etc.
 supplementary online
resources
 use of Google Classroom
 messaging individual
students mid-lesson
for support or
behaviour management
 improved relationships
with some parents
 “a very good learning
opportunity”
 made the participants
better teachers
 more integration of
digital tools and
online learning into

14. Remember
that this
is ERT;
nothing
about it is
normal.
Research participant
Summary “
KEY
CHALLENGES
 ensuring
accessibility
 managing
unengaged
learners
 finding
effective
teaching
activities
SOLUTIONS
 improve tech-
savviness
 have empathy
 adapt
activities to
embrace
online
learning
 manage
expectations
AFFORDANCES
 exploiting
new tools
 connecting
with students
and parents
 Improving and
innovating as
teachers

15. Implications for
teachers
 Embrace the tools available
 Be mindful of learners’ situations and needs
 Extend empathy to colleagues and others in the
profession
 Collaborate with peers, learners and/or parents

16. Much of the literature available at the time of
writing was focussed on the challenges of ERT rather
than the positives. However, it was not uncommon for
articles to end by discussing the need for teachers to
adapt and innovate in order to rise to these
challenges.
It is therefore reassuring to see that the
participants in this study appeared to be doing
exactly that. We got this.
Final thought

17. REFERENCES
Honigsfeld, A., & Nordmeyer, J.
(2020). Teacher Collaboration
During a Global Pandemic - Five
tips for virtual planning from
international educators.
Educational Leadership: An
Educational Leadership Special
Report, 77 (A New Reality:
Getting Remote Learning Right),
47-50.
VISUAL RESOURCES
icons8.com
unsplash.com
Thank you!