4. INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL SCIENCES , Gaziantep, Turkey, 12 - 13 April 2021, pp.162-163
Due
to Covid-19 pandemic, there have been great changes in every aspect of
individuals’ lives. One of the fields that could not resist these alterations
is the field of education. Similar to the case experienced in many countries all
over the world, distance learning has also been adopted at various educational
levels in Turkey. Within this process, most of the courses at tertiary level
have been conducted online for almost three semesters. Within these online
learning settings, the level of interaction among students and instructors has
attracted attention especially in the courses requiring active participation in
target language. Considering the communicative nature of ELT courses, it can be
said that ELT students who need to interact with other learners and instructors
for the improvement of their skills in the target language have faced with some
difficulties. The current study, therefore, aimed to explore the level of
student-student and student-instructor interaction in an online learning
setting through qualitative research design. The participants of the study were
50 ELT students enrolled in Listening and Pronunciation I course. The study
lasted one semester at 2020-2021 academic year. An evaluation and suggestion
form including eight open-ended questions was employed to collect the data. The
findings of content analysis showed that online learning process had a negative
effect on the level of interaction among students and instructors due to
several reasons such as students’ anxiety problems, individualized tasks,
limited course duration, and technical problems. The findings also revealed
that more group-oriented practices, more attractive activities and the
improvement of the system were needed to boost interaction among students and
instructors. In the light of these findings, some practical suggestions were
provided.
Keywords: ELT, online setting, distance
education, interaction, perception.