Exploring the Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on English Language Teachers

Sukirman Sukirman*    -  English Language Teaching, Institut Agama Islam Negeri Palopo, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

(*) Corresponding Author

This study aims to assess how Indonesian Islamic higher education, specifically English language teachers, have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews to investigate the impacts of Covid-19 on English language teachers. Data were collected from ten participants, and thematic analysis techniques were used to analyze the data, including data familiarization, generating codes, grouping codes, generating themes, and finalizing findings. The study reveals that the pandemic has significantly impacted education, particularly English language teaching. It has led to a loss of interactive classroom experiences and obstacles to language acquisition. However, participants have benefited from increased accessibility to international seminars, workshops, and conferences. It has removed geographical and financial barriers, allowing participants to attend events at no cost and providing valuable educational advantages. Future research could benefit from larger-scale participation. In that case, a better understanding of the impact of valuable educational advantages gained from international events amidst Covid-19 on teachers’ teaching performances in the post-pandemic needs to be developed.

Keywords: The Covid-19 Pandemic; Indonesian Islamic higher education; ELT teachers’ experiences; negative and positive impacts of the Covid-19

  1. Ali, S. A., Baloch, M., Ahmed, N., Ali, A. A., & Iqbal, A. (2020). The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - An emerging global health threat. Journal of Infection & Public Health, 13(4), 644-646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2020.02.033
  2. Aquino, K. C. (2023). Collaborating within a Lockdown: Students’ Online Collaboration to Develop a College Readiness Workshop during the COVID-19 in-person restrictions. Journal of Experiential Education, 46(2), 180–196. https://doi.org/10.1177/10538259221115813
  3. Araújo, F. J. O., de Lima, L. S. A., Cidade, P. I. M., Nobre, C. B., & Neto, M. L. R. (2020). Impact of Sars-Cov-2 and its reverberation in global higher education and mental health. Psychiatry Research, 288, 112977. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112977
  4. Bao W. (2020) COVID-19 and online teaching in higher education: A case study of Peking University. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.191
  5. Bell, J. (2010). Doing your research project. New York: Open University Press.
  6. Ben Salah, A., DeAngelis, B.N. & al’Absi, M. (2022). Uncertainty and psychological distress during COVID-19: What about protective factors?. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03244-2
  7. Borg, S. (2015). The benefits of attending ELT conferences. ELT Journal, 69(1), 35–46, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccu045
  8. Bray, H. J., Stone, J., Litchfield, L., Britt, K. L., Hopper, J. L., Ingman, W. V. (2022). Together alone: Going online during COVID-19 is changing scientific conferences. Challenges 13(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/challe13010007
  9. Burki, T. K. (2020). COVID-19: consequences for higher education. The Lancet Oncology, 21(6), 758-758. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30287-4
  10. Cheung, Y. L. (2010). First publications in refereed English journals: Difficulties, coping strategies, and recommendations for student training. System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, 38(1), 134-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2009.12.012
  11. Cho, S. (2004). Challenges of entering discourse communities through publishing in English: perspectives of nonnative-speaking doctoral students in the United States of America. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 3(1), 47-72. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327701jlie0301_3
  12. Clarke, L. (2020). An introduction to economic studies, health emergencies, and COVID-19. Journal of Evidence-dased Medicine, 13(2), 161-167. https://doi.org/10.1111/jebm.12395
  13. CNN. (2020). Why the impact of coronavirus could be particularly bad on college campuses. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/07/health/universities-coronavirus-impact/index.html.
  14. Cotterall, S. (2011). Doctoral students writing: Where’s the pedagogy? Teaching in Higher Education, 16(4), 413-425. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2011.560381
  15. Darvin, R., & Norton, B. (2023). Investment and motivation in language learning: What's the difference? Language Teaching, 56(1), 29-40. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444821000057
  16. Erarslan, A. (2021). English language teaching and learning during Covid-19: A global perspective on the first year. Journal of Educational Technology and Online Learning, 4(2), 349-367 . https://doi.org/10.31681/jetol.907757
  17. Fereday, J. & Muir-Cochrane, E. (2006). Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 80–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406906005001
  18. Flowerdew, J. (1999). Problems in writing for scholarly publication in English: The case of Hong Kong. Journal of Second Language Writing, 8(3), 243-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1060-3743(99)80116-7
  19. Gasparyan, A. Y., Misra, D. P., Yessirkepov, M., & Zimba, O. (2020). Perspectives of immune therapy in coronavirus disease 2019. Journal of Korean medical science. 35 (18), e176. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2020.35.e176
  20. Goodwell, J. W. (2020). COVID-19 and finance: Agendas for future research. Finance Research Letters, 101512. Retrieved from; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2020.101512.
  21. Griffin, K. M., Karas, M. G., Ivascu, N. S., & Lief, L. (2020). Hospital preparedness for COVID-19: A practical guide from a critical care perspective. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 201(11), 1337-1344. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202004-1037CP
  22. Guimón, J., & Narula, R. (2020). Ending the COVID-19 pandemic requires more international collaboration, Research-Technology Management, 63(5), 38-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2020.1790239
  23. Hagerty, S. L., & Williams, L. M. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on mental health: The interactive roles of brain biotypes and human connection. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity – Health, 5, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2020.100078
  24. He, H., & Harris, L. (2020). The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on corporate social responsibility and marketing philosophy. Journal of Business Research, 116, 176-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.030
  25. Hoang, T. V. Y., & Ma, L. P. F. (2019). Experiences of publishing in English: Vietnamese doctoral students' challenges and strategies. Across the Disciplines, 16(3), 50-65. https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/atd/australasia/hoang_ma2019.pdf
  26. Kandati, S. P., & Tatipang, D. P. (2021). The effect of virtual teaching on attitudes of second language acquisition during Covid-19 conditions of Indonesian students. Journal of English Culture, Language, Literature and Education, 9(2), 117-127. https://doi.org/10.53682/eclue.v9i2.2217
  27. Khan, S., Siddique, R., Li, H., Ali, A., Shereen, M. A., Bashir, N., & Xue, M. (2020). Impact of coronavirus outbreak on psychological health. Journal of global health, 10(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010331
  28. Krishnamurthy, S. (2020). The future of business education: A commentary in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Business Research, 117, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.034
  29. Küchenhoff, J. (2019). Intercorporeity and body language: The semiotics of mental suffering expressed through the body. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 100(4), 769-791. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207578.2019.1590780
  30. Le, D. A., Maclntyre, B., & Outlaw, J. (2020). Enhancing the experience of virtual conferences in social virtual environments. IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), Atlanta, GA, USA, 2020, pp. 485-494. https://doi.org/10.1109/VRW50115.2020.00101
  31. Lei, J. (2019). Publishing during doctoral candidature from an activity theory perspective: The case of four Chinese nursing doctoral students. TESOL Quarterly, 53(3), 655-684. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.501
  32. Mohamed, K., Rodríguez-Román, E., Rahmani, F., Zhang, H., Ivanovska, M., Makka, S., . . . Rezaei, N. (2020). Borderless collaboration is needed for COVID-19 - A disease that knows no borders. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 41(10), https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2020.162
  33. O’Leary, Z. (2014). The essential guide to doing your research project (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
  34. Rasmitadila R., Rachmadtullah, R., Samsudin, A., Nurtanto, M., & Jauhari, M. N. (2023). Limited face-to-face learning on students in inclusive classrooms during the Covid-19 pandemic: Perceptions of elementary school teachers in Indonesia. Cogent Education, 10(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2213612
  35. Samarji, A., & Sengupta, E. (2023). When the “cultural other” becomes socially close during the Covid-19 pandemic: An Afghani–Lebanese intercultural communication narrative, Sengupta, E. (Ed.) Pandemic pedagogy: Preparedness in uncertain times (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 49), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 11-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120230000049002
  36. Sandy, W. & Shen, H. (2019). Publish to earn incentives: how do Indonesian professors respond to the new policy? Higher Education, 77(2), 247-263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0271-0
  37. Sarkodie, S. A. & Owusu, P. A. (2020). Global assessment of environment, health and economic impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Environment, Development and Sustainability, Retrieved from; https://doi-org.queens.ezp1.qub.ac.uk/10.1007/s10668-020-00801-2
  38. Sharif, A., Aloui, C., & Yarovaya, L. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic, oil prices, stock market, geopolitical risk and policy uncertainty nexus in the US economy: Fresh evidence from the wavelet-based approach. International Review of Financial Analysis, 70, 101496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2020.101496
  39. Singhal, T. (2020). A review of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). The Indian Journal of Pediatrics, 87(4), 281-286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-020-03263-6
  40. Solomon, S., Rao, G. P., & Swapna, M. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on Indian Sugar Industry. Sugar Tech. Retrieved from; https://doi-org.queens.ezp1.qub.ac.uk/10.1007/s12355-020-00846-7
  41. Thomas, M.S.C., & Rogers, C. (2020). Education, the science of learning, and the COVID-19 crisis. Prospects, 49, 87–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09468-z.
  42. UNESCO. (2020). COVID-19 educational disruption and response. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse
  43. Vanderpool, R.C., Gaysynsky, A., Chou, W-Y. S., & Tonorezos, E. S. (2023). Using behavioral science to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among cancer survivors: Communication strategies and research opportunities. Journal Behaviour Medicine. 46, 366–376. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-022-00304-7
  44. Wang, C., & Zhao, H. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on anxiety in Chinese university students. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1168. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01168
  45. Wang, C., Horby, P. W., Hayden, F. G., & Gao, G. F. (2020). A novel coronavirus outbreak of global health concern. Lancet, 395(10223), 470-473. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30185-9
  46. Wang, Q., & Su, M. (2020). A preliminary assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on environment–a case study of China. Science of The Total Environment, 728, 138915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138915.
  47. Watermeyer, R., Crick, T., Knight, C., & Goodall, J. (2020). COVID-19 and digital disruption in UK universities: afflictions and affordances of emergency online migration. Higher Education, 1-19. Retrieved from: https://doi-org.queens.ezp1.qub.ac.uk/10.1007/s10734-020-00561-y
  48. WHO. (2020). WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard.
  49. Williamson, B., Eynon, R., & Potter, J. (2020). Pandemic politics, pedagogies and practices: digital technologies and distance education during the coronavirus emergency. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(2), 107-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2020.1761641
  50. Zhang, D., Hu, M., & Ji, Q. (2020). Financial markets under the global pandemic of COVID-19. Finance Research Letters, 101528. Retrieved from; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2020.101528

Open Access Copyright (c) 2023 Sukirman Sukirman
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Vision: Journal of Language and Foreign Language Learning is indexed by

    

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

View My Stats

Publisher
English Education Department,
Faculty of Education and Teacher Training,
Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang
Jl. Prof Hamka Ngaliyan Semarang, Jawa Tengah, Indonesia

apps