Abstract
Virtual teaching and learning have become a hot topic in the Covid-19 pandemic. This chapter will present an investigation of learners' perceptions and practices of learning online. The current research was conducted with 161 EFL students at Dong Thap University, Vietnam. Questionnaires and observations were set to collect data. The findings showed that most students indicated benefits of online learning, such as saving time and money, protecting their health from Coronavirus, and being a suitable way of learning during lockdown time. However, in practice, they felt stress in long online classes. They could not fix technological problems as well as understand rules, technology culture, and attitudes when learning online. Furthermore, freshmen met several difficulties in learning English major online rather than seniors. Participants also showed their wishes and suggestions to improve virtual language teaching and learning platforms in the distant future.
TopIntroduction
Online teaching and learning have become popular in modern life, especially during the Covid-19 epidemic. For recent years, Coronavirus has covered broad regions all over the globe, which has made several institutions in many countries face an extremely difficult setting of the advancement of virtual teaching and learning environments. Universities in Vietnam have met the same difficulties as others in various areas of the world. Hence, accompanying an official letter No.1061/BGDDT-GDTrH, 25 March 2020 issued by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (Vietnamese MOET, 2020), schools as well as universities in Vietnam were advised to apply the different varieties of E-teaching and E-learning platforms, namely Google Meet, Zoom, Learning Management System (LMS), Learning Content Management System, Microsoft Team, and so on, to teach students and give assignments and tests. In addition, the official letter No.606/ BGDDT-GDTrH, 18 February 2021, issued by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (Vietnamese MOET, 2021) focused on the importance of online teaching and learning, and the balancing the content of all subjects and students’ background.
However, for some reasons, the wireless Internet access serving online teaching and learning in Vietnam, especially in colleges or institutions in rural or remote regions, might be a very bad connection and still has several difficulties. Similarly, students at Dong Thap University (DTU), a rural university in the Mekong Delta, South Vietnam, have had many problems when learning online. Up to now, although many studies about the merits and drawbacks of virtual teaching and learning have been researched in the world in general and in Asian settings in particular (i.e., Gao & Zhang, 2020; Le, 2021; Mukhtar et al., 2020; Nartiningrum & Nugroho, 2020; Pham et al., 2022; Tran & Nguyen, 2022), there has still been little research of this field in Mekong Delta area of Vietnam. Some recent research on online teaching and learning was conducted in some big cities in Vietnam, such as Ngo (2021)’s, Pham et al. (2022)’s, and Tran and Nguyen (2022)’s studies happening in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the big cities in Vietnam. Additionally, universities have evaluated virtual teaching and learning process, especially learners’ attitudes and performance, and rarely focused on the rules and cultures of eLearning. Hence, exploring EFL students’ understanding of and taking part in online classes in a setting of a remote university in Vietnam will supply more insights into literature in this field, especially factors of technological rules and cultures.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Online Education: This is defined as education being delivered in an online environment through the use of the Internet for teaching and learning. This includes online learning on the part of the students that is not dependent on their physical or virtual co-location. The teaching content is delivered online, and the instructors develop teaching modules that enhance learning and interactivity in the synchronous or asynchronous environment.
Practice: Something is usually or regularly done, often as a habit, tradition, or custom.
Technology: (the study and knowledge of) The practical, especially industrial, use of scientific discoveries.
Synchronous: (of learning or teaching) hHappening with a teacher and group of students who are all taking part in a lesson at the same time, either physically together in one place or using the Internet.
Benefit: A helpful or good effect, or something intended to help.
EFL: English as a Foreign Language: the teaching of English to students whose first language is not English.
Quality: How good or bad something is.
Asynchronous: (of learning or teaching) Involving students working separately at different times, for example using recorded lessons or the Internet, rather than involving students and teacher taking part in a lesson at the same time.
Challenge: (the situation of or being faced with) Something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person's ability.
Perception: A belief or opinion is often held by many people and based on how things seem.