\nUniversity of C\u00f3rdoba, Spain
\n<cristina.huertas
![\"atmark\"](\"http:\/\/www.tesl-ej.org\/atmark.png\")
uco.es><\/p>\nFrancisco Javier Palacios-Hidalgo<\/strong> Mar\u00eda Elena G\u00f3mez-Parra<\/strong> Emergency Remote Language Teaching is a new term coined after the concept of Emergency Remote Teaching (Hodges, et al., 2020), which emphasizes that teaching that is being done during emergencies and crises, as the pandemic caused by COVID-19, is neither distance nor online teaching properly. This paper explores the attitudes and perceptions of pre-service bilingual primary teachers at the University of C\u00f3rdoba (Spain) regarding the design of socially and culturally responsive learning materials in a real Emergency Remote Language Teaching context. Due to the nature of this exploratory research, this study was designed to perform a qualitative analysis. To analyze the data, the grounded-theory scheme was followed to establish different categories and topics, then content analysis was applied, and finally, a manual SWOT analysis was created. Participants showed positive attitudes towards the design of materials for Emergency Remote Language Teaching, emphasizing the feeling of real teachers, the design of resources with a meaningful purpose, and the importance of \u2018thinking outside the box.\u2019 They also found challenges derived from the new, complex situation, and the lack of experience designing materials for distance teaching. Recommendations are proposed for teacher training and materials design in Emergency Remote Language Teaching contexts.<\/p>\n Keywords<\/strong>: Emergency Remote Language Teaching, English for Social Purposes and Cooperation, teacher training, pre-service bilingual primary teachers, SWOT analysis<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There is no doubt that language learning, and more specifically English, is increasingly becoming key both in international organizations (Jenkins, Baker, & Dewey, 2018) and in the labor market (Olney, 2017). Its relevance explains how English has grown into the quintessential first foreign language in almost all the world\u2019s educational systems (Andrade, 2016). Similarly, technology (in its multiple forms) has also changed the way participation in society is understood (Palacios-Hidalgo, et al., 2020), and so acquiring and developing competences and skills in this respect have become key educational objectives (European Parliament & Council of the European Union, 2006; Guti\u00e9rrez & Serrano, 2016).<\/p>\n Technology has been proved to bring significant benefits to English language learning, from early childhood education (Redondo, et al., 2020) to higher education (Fouz-Gonz\u00e1lez, 2019; Huertas-Abril, 2020), and even in bilingual education. However, in the context of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, it is necessary to seek motivating proposals that go beyond on-site technology-based strategies in order to promote critical thinking and guarantee the continuity of all teaching and learning processes in general (and of English in particular) at all educational stages (UNESCO & IESALC, 2020).<\/p>\n In the same line, with all the world\u2019s population facing an unprecedent health emergency, it seems necessary to go beyond traditional strategies for English language learning so that both teachers and learners can become more aware of its social implications. In this light, the English for Social Purposes and Cooperation (ESoPC) approach, an innovative teaching method aiming to develop or increase students\u2019 communicative skills and raise awareness towards social and cultural issues (Huertas-Abril, & G\u00f3mez-Parra, 2018), can constitute an interesting framework to promote meaningful and accessible learning of English, as well as responsible attitudes in contexts of Emergency Remote Teaching, term coined by Hodges et al. (2020), and more specifically of Emergency Remote Language Teaching (ERLT).<\/p>\n In this context, this paper aims to explore pre-service bilingual primary teachers\u2019 attitudes and perceptions regarding the design of ESoPC learning materials in the context of ERLT derived from the COVID-19 health crisis. For this purpose, the research questions were:<\/p>\n Research Question 1: What are the strengths and opportunities of designing ESoPC materials in a context of ERLT according to pre-service bilingual primary teachers\u2019 attitudes and perceptions?<\/p>\n Research Question 2: What are the weaknesses and threats of designing ESoPC materials in a context of ERLT according to pre-service bilingual primary teachers\u2019 attitudes and perceptions?<\/p>\n By the end of June 2020, more than 1000 million students had been affected by school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic according to UNESCO (2020), over 60% of the total enrolled learners in the world. Together with the unprecedented natural disasters that characterize the current decade, much more inclusive and sustainable societies and educational systems need to be created all over the world in order to fight inequalities in education and deficiencies in technology-based learning and teaching (Giannini, 2020). At this juncture, educational institutions around the globe are facing challenges to effectively adapt their teaching. In the majority of cases, face-to-face teaching has been substituted by online courses (UNESCO & IESALC, 2020). In this light, there are many possible varieties of teaching alternatives to on-site teaching, which scholars and experts in educational technologies (e.g., Moore, et al., 2011; Moskal, et al., 2013) have identified as distance learning (aiming at granting access to learning for people who are geographically distant), online learning (including technology-based learning experiences) or blended learning (broadly combining on-site and online learning), among others. However, Hodges et al. (2020) claim that what is being done during the coronavirus crisis is neither distance nor online teaching, but what they have called Emergency Remote Teaching:<\/p>\n In contrast to experiences that are planned from the beginning and designed to be online, emergency remote teaching (ERT) is a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances. It involves the use of fully remote teaching solutions for instruction or education that would otherwise be delivered face-to-face or as blended or hybrid courses and that will return to that format once the crisis or emergency has abated. The primary objective in these circumstances is not to re-create a robust educational ecosystem but rather to provide temporary access to instruction and instructional supports in a manner that is quick to set up and is reliably available during an emergency or crisis. (para. 18)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the case of language learning and teaching, specific considerations should be borne in mind, and we could explicitly consider ERLT. This should be therefore understood as a form of Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), where language education is facilitated and\/or supported by the use of technology, helping establish a temporary digital environment that promotes language learning and teaching in emergency situations. However, not only does ERLT involve applying technology to what in a non-emergency situation would be mainly delivered through face-to-face instruction, but it also means a resilient reflection on language teaching and learning, creative problem solving, and even a potential future requirement for education agents\u2019 skill set and competences.<\/p>\n ERLT should also be approached similarly to TELL when developing materials to allow students to develop their autonomy. In this light, remote language teaching materials have to be both interactive and individualized to guarantee that learners are able to continue learning from home without being physically present in the classroom.<\/p>\n Likewise, this temporary type of instruction allows a variety of learning paces for students (from autonomous to teacher-controlled learning process), different roles for both teachers and learners, and both synchronous and asynchronous communication. Consequently, it also necessarily implies some requirements (i.e., sufficient technology infrastructure, agents\u2019 digital skills, and school and government support for learners, educators, and families) that have to be considered to ensure the quality of the instruction while the emergency lasts (Hodges et al., 2020).<\/p>\n In this context of health crisis and emergency distance teaching, ERLT can benefit from the ESoPC approach. ESoPC can be defined as the process of teaching-learning English as a foreign language in any field of life (personal or professional, among others), where, besides acquiring or reinforcing communicative skills, key factors related to social awareness, civic values, and cooperation are addressed (Huertas-Abril, 2018). This approach explores topics of great social and cultural relevance while learning the language, aiming at developing students\u2019 communicative ability in English, cultural awareness, and social responsibility (Huertas-Abril, & G\u00f3mez-Parra, 2018). Therefore, issues like immigration and refugees, gender equality, climate change, global crises, and pandemics are some of the interests of ESoPC. Following Palacios-Hidalgo (2020), the eight pillars of the ESoPC approach are:<\/p>\n Owing to the nature of this exploratory research, this study was designed to perform a qualitative analysis following the Qualitative Evaluation Checklist (Patton, 2003). The main purpose of conducting a qualitative study is to examine in detail the opinions and experiences of the participants in order to understand of and\/or interpret the phenomena according to the meaning that participants attach to them (Denzin, & Lincoln, 2017). With this objective, the methodological procedure of grounded theory (Glaser, & Strauss, 1967) was used to make a first approach to the phenomenon, as its main aim is to discover or produce a theory from the collected data (Pidgeon, & Henwood, 1997). Moreover, from a social constructivist point of view, the grounded theory provides the researchers with a kind of interaction with data that can lead to the construction of different categories, topics and theories (Charmaz, 1990; 2006).<\/p>\n For this study, therefore, the authors adopted grounded theory in order to find out four categories (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) based on the collected data from pre-service bilingual primary teachers about their experience on ESoPC in an ERLT environment. Then, and according to this framework, the researchers established all the stages of conducting this research, from raising research questions to data collection and analysis. More specifically, five stages were established: (i) creating a timeline for the study; (ii) identifying the participants; (iii) establishing ethical guidelines (participants submitted their responses anonymously to guarantee confidentiality and these were analyzed once the course had finished); (iv) developing the analysis; and (v) using member checks \u201cto reduce bias and increase credibility\u201d (Hendricks, 2017, p. 65).<\/p>\n The target population of this study was composed by the students of the course \u2018English as a Foreign Language for Primary Education Teachers\u2019, bilingual itinerary, of the University of C\u00f3rdoba (Spain), in the 2019-2020 academic year. Three groups of students can be identified within this population: (i) Year 3 students of the BA in Primary Education (PS); (ii) Year 3 students of the Double BA in Primary Education and English Studies (DS); and (iii) Erasmus students (ES).<\/p>\n A non-probabilistic sample based on convenience was used for participants (N = 61). Eligibility criteria were based on proximity and participation in a teaching experience based on the design of ESoPC materials for the pandemic in a context of ERLT.<\/p>\n The distribution of the participants according to the three aforementioned groups was as follows: 37 PS (60.66%), 19 DS (31.15%), and 5 ES (8.20%). Moreover, 49 participants (80.33%) were female, and 12 (19.67%) were male. The mean age was 21.25 years (range = 20\u201327; SD = 1.545). Finally, regarding nationality, 56 participants (91.80%) were from Spain, while 2 participants (3.28%) were from Poland, 1 participant (1.64%) was from Austria, 1 participant (1.64%) was from Finland, and 1 participant (1.64%) was from Turkey.<\/p>\n We administered a 3 open-ended question instrument in English to students of the course \u2018English as a Foreign Language for Primary Education Teachers\u2019 who had previously designed ESoPC materials for the pandemic in a context of ERLT; therefore, the participants were selected through criterion referenced (purposive) sampling techniques (Mertens, 2014). The materials designed by the participants are available online in the online repository \u201cTeaching English in Times of COVID-19\u201d: https:\/\/englishsocially.wixsite.com\/covid<\/a> (Figure 1).<\/p>\n Participants were requested to respond to 3 open-ended questions on a voluntary basis, and they had to write their responses online via the official Moodle platform of the University of C\u00f3rdoba (Spain). According to Patton (2003, p. 2), \u201cOpen-ended questions and probes yield in-depth responses about people\u2019s experiences, perceptions, opinions, feelings, and knowledge. Data consist of verbatim quotations with sufficient context to be interpretable.\u201d<\/p>\n The questions were: (i) What positive aspects have you found when designing your own teaching materials (e.g., how you felt by designing real, useful materials, competences that you have developed, etc.)?; (ii) What are the main challenges and difficulties that you have found when designing your own teaching materials (e.g., choosing the topic, online communication with your partner\/s, online presentation of the proposal, etc.)?; (iii) What other ideas may you develop in English to help children, families and teachers regarding remote English language learning and teaching? All the participants\u2019 responses were anonymized after their written consent to be used for research.<\/p>\n In this qualitative study, the authors applied an online open-ended question instrument to understand the perceptions and attitudes of pre-service bilingual primary teachers at the University of C\u00f3rdoba (Spain) about their experience on designing ESoPC materials in ERLT.<\/p>\n To analyze the data collected, the grounded-theory scheme was followed to establish the different categories and topics; then, content analysis was applied; finally, a manual SWOT analysis (which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats; Samejima, et al., 2006) was created. Content analysis was employed as it is \u201ca research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from data to their context\u201d (Krippendorf, 1980, p. 21) that \u201cuses a set of procedures to make valid inferences from text\u201d (Weber, 1990, p. 9). Moreover, in order to determine the positive or negative mood of the qualitative responses, text processing in the form of content analysis was required. Regarding the SWOT analysis, it must be taken into account that strengths and weaknesses are the internal (and thus controllable) factors that support and hinder systems, organizations or plans to achieve their mission, whereas opportunities and threats are the external (and thus uncontrollable) factors that enable or not systems, organizations or plans to accomplish their mission (Dyson, 2004). Different stages of SWOT analysis were utilized in this study including: (a) data gathering, (b) content analysis, (c) classifying data into strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats, (d) specifying the weight of each factor, and (e) reporting the result.<\/p>\n The authors made a questionnaire-based system to automate SWOT analysis process, as described in Figure 2. The SWOT matrix was built upon the responses of pre-service bilingual primary teachers at the University of C\u00f3rdoba (Spain). The collected qualitative data of the study were in the form of text description which needed content analysis before classifying them into the SWOT matrix.<\/p>\n The total of weight scores was calculated and then classified the content of each data into relevant SWOT categories: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The Rule Model (Thamrin, & Pamungkas, 2017) was adopted to classify the factors based on the participants\u2019 responses (see Table 1).<\/p>\n Table 1. Rule Model (Adapted from Thamrin, & Pamungkas (2017)).<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nUniversity of C\u00f3rdoba, Spain
\n<francisco.palaciosuco.es><\/p>\n
\nUniversity of C\u00f3rdoba, Spain
\n<elena.gomezuco.es><\/p>\n\n
Abstract<\/h3>\n
Literature Review<\/h3>\n
\n
Methodology<\/h3>\n
Research Design<\/h4>\n
Participants<\/h4>\n
Data Gathering<\/h4>\n
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\nFigure 1. Online repository \u201cTeaching English in Times of COVID-19\u201d (Source: Own elaboration)<\/strong><\/p>\nData Analysis<\/h4>\n
![](\"https:\/\/tesl-ej.org\/ej98\/a11pix\/image2.png\")
\nFigure 2. Process of data analysis. (Source: Own elaboration)<\/strong><\/p>\n