Abstract
In the COVID-19 period, teachers and learners across the globe face great challenges, not only physically, mentally, but also pedagogically. The pandemic forced most teachers to move from classroom-based to online teaching within a matter of weeks. That is, the sudden revaluation of pedagogy pushed teachers to make quick adaptations to online teaching, willingly or not. Against this backdrop, this chapter unpacks the challenges of two language teachers at a university in Hong Kong. We adopt a narrative inquiry approach to investigate the lived experience of the teachers who went through this unprecedented period of time. Teacher A is a highly experienced classroom teacher yet a non-digital native while Teacher B is a digital native but with limited teaching experience. Teacher A taught a language skills and strategies course to BA English majors, while Teacher B taught a Business English course to non-English majors. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s (The ecology of human development: experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1979) ecosystem model, we examine the teachers’ needs and challenges in order to understand their experiences from the micro-, meso- and exo-systems perspectives. The study provides implications on what universities and teacher educators can do in order to better offer in-service teacher training and support to teachers for future online teaching scenarios.
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Appendix: Reflective Questions
Appendix: Reflective Questions
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1.
What is your experience of using technology in your daily life?
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2.
What is your past experience of using technology for teaching?
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3.
How would you describe your relationship with technology?
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4.
What technological devices do you use?
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5.
What was your initial reaction to being informed that all classes were to be taught online?
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6.
What was your first experiences of using zoom for teaching?
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7.
Did you have any problems in learning how to use zoom?
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8.
Did you have any challenges in converting your teaching materials for online use?
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9.
How did your students react to your online teaching?
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10.
What challenges did you face while teaching your students online?
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11.
What suggestions do you have for an online teaching app?
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12.
How did you handle assessment and assignments while using online teaching?
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13.
Did you receive any feedback from students about your online teaching?
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14.
Would you be happy to continue using an online app for supplementary teaching?
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15.
What advice would you give a teacher who had not used any online teaching apps before?
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16.
What advice would you give to a teacher trainer who prepares novice teachers in how to use an online teaching app?
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17.
Do you think content can be taught effectively using online apps?
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18.
Do you think language can be taught effectively using online apps?
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19.
What technical skills have you learnt from using the online teaching app?
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20.
What technical skills would you still like to learn in order to use online teaching apps?
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Miller, L., Wu, J.G. (2022). Reacting, Re-learning and Reflecting on Sudden Pedagogical Adaptations. In: Pun, J.K.H., Curle, S., Yuksel, D. (eds) The Use of Technology in English Medium Education. English Language Education, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99622-2_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99622-2_10
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