Perceptions of Remote Foreign Language Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Higher Education Students in Morocco

Introduction

The education sector, along with many other vital sectors including the public health and the economic system, has been profoundly disrupted because of the hit of the COVID-19 pandemic not only in Morocco, but in all parts of the globe. Many governments and decision makers found themselves obliged to interrupt presential education by closing the educational institutions of all levels with the aim of decelerating the virus’s highly infectious speed though reducing students’ contact with each other. In other words, the highly contagious characteristic of the COVID-19 virus imposed the educational facilities to close their doors as a preventive measure that is meant to control students’ as well as the educational staff’s contact and lower the chances of more people to get infected. This precautionary measure goes hand in hand with social and physical distancing.

Accordingly, the Moroccan governmental guidelines insisted on a national closure as of March 18, 2020. Hence, all the relevant sectors including the governmental and private offices, industries, businesses, educational institutions were shut down since then. As a result, there was an abrupt and unprecedented shift to electronic modes of work. Both teachers and students found themselves obliged to go through the academic year in a completely new setting and new circumstances. Put differently, this shift imposed new schedules of teaching in an unusual classroom setting, adopting unfamiliar tools of teaching and learning. The continuity of teaching and learning during this period relied heavily on certain e-learning platforms and tools that were fundamental to ensuring the academic curricula’s coverage, such as Zoom, Google Classroom, Google Meet, Teams, inter alia. Indeed, they served as a suitable efficient alternative that helped schools survive the pandemic blight and go through the academic year. The suspension of face-to-face classes obliged the teachers to be creative and resort to many soft tools online; they substituted the usual text-based documents for smart online-based files including multimedia presentations, interactive platforms, and audiovisual files with the aim of providing their students with study materials that fit their learning objectives. Hence, students had to catch up with the wheel of a new mode of education with all that it takes.