Indian EFL Teachers' Reflections on Sudden E-Adoption vis-a-vis COVID-19

Literature Review

New technologies are assimilated into the academic world profusely to aid the process of learning in many fields including English language teaching (ELT). Technology has the proven potential to improve student motivation, engagement, and achievement thereby helping them to grow up to their potential. EFL teaching-learning can be enhanced with technology incorporation capable of giving new dimensions to create language learning, especially during critical situations (Patil, 2020). Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are demonstrated to have a significant role in the improvement of EFL learners’ vocabulary (Mahmoudzadeh, 2014). Bruff et al. (2013) said the integration of both face-to-face interaction (offline) and online materials has shown great implications for learners as they found it to be useful.

Bonner & Reinders (2018) found another benefit of new technologies in ELT that is encouraging learners to actively take part in (co)-constructing their learning environment. These studies made their observations during normal situation but how technology has been used by the EFL teachers during the pandemic?

Like other courses of study, EFL teaching-learning had also been technology leaned during pandemic across the globe. Several past studies investigated teachers' and students’ experiences on this sudden transition to remote/online teaching-learning in the pandemic. Khatoony & Nezhamehr (2020) found the implementation of technology has provided significant opportunities for EFL teachers to adopt online applications and instruments to enhance learners' proficiency in complicated COVID-19 conditions. Howard et al. (2021) found there were differences in teachers’ perceptions about online teaching depending on the resources they had and the institutional support they received. Cutri et al. (2020) investigated readiness for online teaching during the pandemic and found that although some areas needed attention such as assessment, they were willing to transform their teaching to online and enrich their knowledge by sharing with their learners. One of the main factors determining teachers’ readiness and competencies was their prior experience and training (Moser et al, 2021).