Abstract:
Online teaching that is considered an effective platform to disseminate instructional
content won the attention of the educators with the outbreak of the COVID – 19
pandemic. The DELT (Department of English Language Teaching) of the University
of Ruhuna was also compelled to conduct teaching English online owing to the
decision of the government to close all the universities in Sri Lanka. With no prior
experience in teaching online, the lectures were carried out using ZOOM, making it
a novel experience for both the teachers and the students. Therefore, this study was
carried out with the objective of ascertaining the perceptions of the undergraduates
on their exposure to learning English online, which could bring about many insights.
Following the course work of a semester, a questionnaire, comprised of open-ended
questions was administered to 215 second-year students. In order to validate the
implications, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 09 English lecturers of
the DELT face-to-face. The data that emerged from the discussions were qualitatively
analyzed, employing the thematic qualitative analysis method. It was revealed that
the interaction not only between the lecturers and the students but also among
students was low, making the students rather passive listeners. Another major finding
was teacher-centeredness as in the case of a more traditional instructional approach
to language teaching. Moreover, poor reception in remote areas and the preconceived
notions regarding online teaching also had a negative impression on learning ESL
online. Thus it was deduced that teaching ESL online can only be utilized as a
strategic tool but not as a replacement to physical classrooms.
