RATE Issues

Teaching English during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Maintaining the Students’ English Competencies during Online Classes

by Constanţa Bordea, Colegiul Naţional “Andrei Şaguna”, Braşov

Keywords: online teaching, motivation, effective methods, personal experience
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a new way of interacting with students and of teaching (English or some other subject). The aim of the following article is to present some practical ways to deal with the downsides of online teaching and to keep students motivated.

We are experiencing troubled times and probably few of us have predicted that our teaching will move almost completely online. I, for one, have not, so I had very little time to realise what was happening and to adjust my “ways” to the virtual medium. The students, no matter how conscientious and hard-working, are children so unaware how important every aspect or part of their education is, so they tended to ‘skip’ classes not only physically, because apparently, they were present, but mentally, as well. They probably thought that not covering that part of the curriculum would not have a great impact on their future education, but it seems that the ordeal (from my point of view) will continue, so the impact will be further-stretching than expected. Therefore, the question is “What can we do?”
From my experience, the answer is unpredictability. More precisely, vary the way you approach every lesson so as not to bore the students, but also to keep them “on their toes”. And the easiest of the methods is to make them understand that you care whether they are present or not, by both stating how important it is for them to keep attending and learning English and by keeping track of their attendance. I, for one, used the electronic register, which proved invaluable in spite of its initial nuisance status. Knowing that the parents will be alerted immediately about their absence made even the most stubborn students be present for all (or most) classes (especially if they were lower secondary students).
Another way to ensure attentiveness is by not allowing just the students who are willing to contribute to the lesson, but by also naming the ones who are supposed to answer or solve whatever task you assign. To further increase motivation, I also rewarded these contributions, especially if they were substantial and showed that the student really participated. And here again the electronic register proved an invaluable asset. I had the possibility to award each students stars, pluses, minuses or black dots and the date when this happened was also recorded, so I had a way of assessing the students’ work along the semester. Thus, my evaluation proved easier than I would have thought under the circumstances. This is an easy enough system, even without the help of an electronic register.
Since, for students, marks are eventually everything they care about, I made these the main factor for increasing motivation. I, personally, focus on all skills when teaching and writing is, arguably, difficult to improve, especially when you teach younger students. For this I used Google classroom and more precisely its assignment section. Almost weekly, I assigned my students different writing tasks, which then I corrected, marked and gave feedback upon. Each of these assignments became part of their final portfolio, which again translated into a grade. Knowing that these assignments would count, the students strove to make them better and better. I also came up with general feedback for the whole class, in which I synthesized the main problems which had appeared in their writing, I explained this to everybody, then I established marks which would then be deducted from their grades if those particular mistakes appeared again. This method has proven especially effective for my lower secondary students’ writing ability.
Other strong motivators for students are prizes. We, as teachers of English, are fortunate to have great opportunities from the point of view of contests. There are plenty of online contests available and I took advantage of them during the pandemic. I encouraged the students to participate, mentioning of course that their contributions would not be in vain, even if they did not win. Their work, after having been checked by me, became part of their portfolio or even got separate grades, depending on the effort required. I encouraged participation in essay contests, video contests, creative writing contests, thus ensuring that they had the chance to use their English not only for homework or classwork. I even devised a contest of my own. I sent the students (younger or older) a link for a site where they could choose books to listen to (Audible). I thought that listening is especially difficult to develop, especially when having classes online, so I encouraged students to listen to a book of their choice, to summarise it and to review it (for the older students), mentioning that they would be rewarded with a separate grade for their effort. I also encouraged discussions among students about the books they had listened to, thus ensuring that all skills have been covered.
This period of time was difficult not only from the point of view of education. The students’ (and for that matter, the teachers’ as well) mental state was affected. Not knowing what we were up against, being more or less locked in our homes affected everybody to a certain extent. A degree of stability in one’s life most surely prevents people from losing their balance. This was my reasoning for continuing my lessons “normally” and encouraging the students to continue with our lessons disregarding the difficult context. In order to ensure communication of a different kind, I made contact with a teacher from France and a teacher from Italy and with the help of the e-Twinning platform we got the students talking about their lives in the context of the pandemic. This way, I got to find new and interesting things about my students, getting to know them better.
Last but not least, I changed another aspect of assessment. Instead of teaching a whole chapter and assessing at the end of it Use of English and Reading, let’s say, in a test paper and then Writing and Listening in another one, since the 50 minutes of a class did not allow me to thoroughly assess all skills in one class, I assessed all those aspects in separate short evaluation activities, every two weeks, thus ensuring the attention of the students all through the classes. To ensure fairness and lack of cheating, I used the school platform or Google classroom for the tests, which both gave me the opportunity to shuffle the order of the questions, to assign a time limit and to have instant results when the students have submitted their tests.
As a conclusion, although I hope from the bottom of my heart that online teaching will not become the norm, because we as human beings need interaction and learning also implies the same thing in order to be efficient (face to face, not behind / in front of some screens), we have to make the best of it, since we became teachers because we want to share our knowledge with the children and because we care about their education. The suggestions above may prove useful or might be food for thought, with teachers coming up with their own methods to maintain normality in a world which seems to have lost it, unfortunately.

Biodata: Constanţa Bordea has been a teacher of English for twenty years, she is a member of the English National Committee, teacher trainer, president of the Educational Drama Association in Romania, Cambridge speaking examiner and overall a teacher dedicated to her students and her profession.