Reading habits of students of higher learning institutions during COVID-19 lockdown period

This research aims to examine the leisure reading habits of students during the COVID-19 lockdown period (N = 156). The study identified that most of the students have the habit of reading newspapers, and they preferred to read literary works in the areas of novel, story and poem. The majority of students enjoy reading books. Students are regularly reading books to update themselves, and they have a regular habit of reading books other than textbooks. Moreover, the study result proves that doing a part time job, time spent in the SNS, and playing mobile/online games are substantially curtailed the students' reading habits.

Teachers' digital technology use after a period of online teaching

This article reports on a study that investigated primary-school English-language teachers' use of digital technologies in their in-person classrooms after a period of online teaching necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also explored the perceived effects the period of online teaching had on the teachers' practices. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with sixteen experienced Hong Kong primary-school English-language teachers approximately one year after they returned to in-person teaching. The findings suggest that the period of online teaching has led to a greater utilization of technology for teaching. In addition, they suggest digital technologies are now embedded in teachers' regular teaching practices, with the digital technologies adopted primarily those that enhance existing practices. Common digital technologies include: (1) learning management systems;(2) digital noticeboards;(3) interactive digital worksheets and quizzes;and (4) interactive presentation software. Examples of how teachers use digital technologies, and considerations for their use, are provided.

“I Can Teach With My Videos”: How Do Teachers Teach English to Young Learners in a Technology-Limited Environment?

To ensure that learning continues during the Covid-19 pandemic, educators must understand pedagogical and content knowledge through the integration of information and communication technology (ICT). An example is English teachers at elementary schools in Indonesia making videos to help young learners learn English remotely. This paper aims to find out how teachers maximize student learning from their videos in a technology-limited environment and how teachers integrate their role as facilitators into their videos. We gathered data by conducting observations of three English teachers for four months during the odd semester of the 2021–2022 academic year and interviews with the participants. The research findings indicated that participants implemented a cognitive load aspect that makes it easier for young learners to see real examples of objects, even if only on video, thereby reducing excessive cognitive load. In addition, the participants implemented the student engagement aspect, which reduces the intrinsic load and makes the text in the video more meaningful. A third aspect implemented was active learning, which serves to help students and teachers develop strong feelings of social cooperation. Moreover, participants integrated their role as facilitators in educational videos by using an information guide and by being friendly inquirers to their students. The findings imply that if packaged properly, teacher videos can be one of the learning techniques that teachers and students can use in any situation. Furthermore, unlike in offline learning, students can replay teaching videos to aid their learning process, without having to ask the teacher to repeat the explanation. ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

A Blended Learning Model: Results of Young Learners

The paper presents results of research that examined the learning of young learners within the blended learning model. The model included face-to-face lessons and homework done online distance. In total, 123 learners from the Slovak Republic (aged 10–12) participated in the research. In homework, the learners practised and fixed the learning content that was explained in face-to-face lessons. They worked either with printed materials or used an e-application. Two tools were exploited within the research: (1) didactic tests, that is, pretest that detected learners entrance knowledge, and posttest, that monitored their final knowledge;(2) a semi-structured interview in the focus group that proportionally included 16 learners. Five hypotheses were set to discover whether the learners achieved the expected learning objectives and outcomes. The results discovered that within the blended learning model learners achieved the required knowledge, irrespective they worked with printed materials or with e-application. Moreover, all test results were in favour of the e-app. Furthermore, in the semi-structured interview in the focus group, the learners reflected their experience with the blended learning model in four areas: hardware and software equipment, digital skills, autonomy in learning, and home environment. The results aspire to be applied in blended learning in the new normal era of post-pandemic education. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Non-native English teachers’ views on the use of music and songs in teaching English as a foreign language to primary school learners

Teaching English to children through music has gained considerable attention. The use of songs in the English language classroom has become a subject that has increasingly drawn more interests. This is because songs have many values of language. Songs could be particularly effective for supporting foreign language teaching. Implementing educational songs in teaching English to young learners can develop students’ pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. This study illustrates the situation of teaching English through songs in the time of Covid-19 pandemic in primary schools of Kosovo. The aim of this article is to examine current English teachers’ views and perspectives towards the use of music and songs in the language classroom. The instrument used to obtain data is an interview for primary school teachers who teach English in different cities of Kosovo. Five teachers were interviewed to better understand their thoughts towards music utilization into their language classrooms. Questions were mainly designed to elicit attitudes of participants related to the research questions. The results of the study indicate that English teachers have positive attitudes toward the use of music in language teaching and view songs as a significant didactic tool that should be employed in EFL classes. Regarding the utilization of music and songs in the context of Covid 19 pandemic, teachers did not face any difficulties during online learning, on the contrary the music activities kept the enthusiasm alive and made learning interesting and fun. However, during face-to-face learning, the pandemic has affected the employment of songs in the English language classes as the students have to use hand sanitizers all the time and wear masks while singing songs. Teachers have also restricted the movement and group work which might have sought the touching of hands with one another and so on. © 2021, Fikri Soysal. All rights reserved.

Parental support for young learners’ online learning of English in a Chinese primary school

Online language learning is challenging to young learners who often need high levels of support from teachers and parents due to their limited skills in self-regulated learning. While technology integration in education is on the rise, there continues to be a lack of research into how young learners can be better supported in online language learning. This qualitative study examines how parents support young learners' online learning of English during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on interviews with 30 parents of students in Grades 1–5 at a Chinese primary school. The study reveals a range of supportive practices: monitoring of learning emerged as the top priority for parents, followed by affective, academic and technology support. Most of these parental support strategies were mediated primarily by the children's grade level and/or parents' socioeconomic background. Parents also sought teachers' help and played bridging roles to enable teacher-student interaction, particularly when they were unable to provide direct help themselves. Based on these findings, we proposed a tripartite model of parental support for young learners' online learning of English to include interactions between parents, young learners, and teachers, which may inform research and practice of young learners' online language learning.

The use of ICT by ESL teachers working with young learners during the early COVID-19 pandemic in Poland.

The article presents selected aspects of the empirical qualitative research conducted by the authors at the end of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland, in July and August 2020. As in March 2020 SARS-CoV-2 virus started to spread, the Polish Ministry of Education decided to close nearly all educational institutions, and teachers were forced to carry out lessons using the means of distance education. The authors of this paper tried to establish how teachers of English as a second language (ESL) working with young learners in three different types of institutions (public and private (pre-primary and primary) schools, language schools) coped with the situation of teaching a foreign language under these unusual circumstances. One of the results showed that teachers in three types of settings received different support. This either helped them to cope with the new situation of remote teaching, e.g. by choosing a platform for online teaching or providing meetings with a methodologist (private settings and language schools) or caused more confusion by leaving the decisions to the teachers (public settings). The findings of the study may contribute to the knowledge of remote education development and implementation of new technologies in teaching English to young learners, which may result in better quality language education in the future.