Online Foreign Language Teaching

Abstract

Due to the newly occurred state of emergency caused by the COVID-19 virus out break worldwide, the classical Macedonian education process has been currently stopped at all education levels. In an attempt to ensure the continuity of the teaching process, many of the higher education institutions have adapted their educational offer to online activities. This also includes virtual classes for the foreign languages taught at university level through the use of distance learning Internet tools. The aim of this research was to analyze the students’ experience in the foreign language (English and French) online classes offered during the COVID-19 pandemic at several Macedonian higher education institutions. The research is based on a tailor-made questionnaire in which the students were asked to state their opinions on the organization of the online classes, the electronic platforms used in the process of online teaching, the scope of the lectures, the type of class activities, etc. The questionnaire was also intended to explore the students’ motivation to follow the virtual language classes, the advantages and disadvantages of the virtual classes, especially, when compared to the classical way of teaching, as well as the difficulties the students face in the online learning process. The results of the research indicate that although a high percentage of the students are motivated to partake actively in the process of online learning/teaching, still, their preference goes on the side of traditional classroom teaching and learning. The findings also point to the necessity of improving a range of aspects of online foreign language teaching in order to overcome the current obstacles and to eliminate all its present weak spots.