Foreign Language teachers ‘perception from the face to face to virtual modality change during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The pandemic caused by Covid-19 brought an abrupt change in education moving from faceto-face teaching to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT). The objective of this article is to report the perceptions of the sudden change that some foreign language teachers had from face-to-face teaching to emergency remote teaching due to COVID-19. The research paradigm is framed in a case study with an interpretive approach. A questionnaire with open questions was applied as a data collection instrument and email interactions were analyzed to validate answers. Positive perceptions and negative ones emerged from the analysis results. Closer and more direct contact between the participants, familiarity or motivation for technology, a greater desire to participate, and a greater degree of responsibility from the part of the students and teachers were some of the positive perceptions found. In contrast, the increase in the amount of work, technological difficulties and demotivation, lack of clear guidelines from the institution, and virtual training were the negative perceptions found. Finally, conclusions suggest that it is important that teachers create moments of hearings, dialogs, understandings, and guidance in order to help students begin a new learning model that involves human reasoning during Covid-19 pandemic.