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Limited learning and impaired oral skills are some of the impacts of the pandemic on English teaching

(Newsroom - 29/Nov/2020)

Lack of internet connection and devices have prevented many students from attending online classes. Public schools have adopted
different strategies to reach these students, such as the distribution of printed material and broadcasts via open TV.

As in other sectors, the pandemic has had profound impacts on education. With the suspension of face-to-face classes, schools were forced to adopt the remote format, which required re-adapting pedagogical practices and methods. But for this type of education to become viable, it is necessary that teachers and students have access to the internet, good quality connection and adequate equipment and devices. In this context, differences emerged, especially between the public and private networks, highlighting the inequalities in the country's educational system.
In the case of language teaching, which essentially depends on communication and interactivity between teacher and student, one of the difficulties was maintaining contact with students, since many, especially those who study in public schools, do not have these resources. And even among those who managed to follow live classes, for example, there was a loss in relation to oral practice. This orality, which in a way already happens with some difficulty in face-to-face classes, has become even more challenging in the digital environment.
Lucilelia Lemes de Castro Silva Nascimento, English teacher and pedagogical advisor to the Goiás Tec Technological Mediation Project, of the Goiás State Department of Education, says that the digital tools adopted during the pandemic compromised the teacher communication in a certain way with the student.
'From the curriculum matrix, we use music, movies and email messages to stimulate interest in the language, and we work on that. But there was a gap in the communication part. Even in the moments of interaction, using tools like Teams and Zoom, we were unable to maintain this interactivity in English '.
According to her, the conversations during the online activities happened in Portuguese. 'We stopped communicating in English because they were not very comfortable to talk and to carry on a conversation. In person, there is already shyness, but the inhibition was even greater in the remote mode '. (…)
The negative impact of the pandemic on the development of students' oral competence was also identified by Marilda Macedo Souto Franco, pedagogical supervisor and English teacher at the Inter-School of Languages (CIL) of Ceilândia, in the Federal District (DF). The CILs, linked to the State Secretariat of Education, primarily serve students from the DF public school system. (…)
She also considers that remote education is not an adequate form of teaching for children and adolescents who still need to learn to organize themselves to participate even in face-to-face classes. Another difficulty that she points out is that many students do not even have an appropriate place to study at home. (…)
For her, the biggest challenge has been keeping students motivated considering so many particular issues they are facing during the pandemic. 'The amount of work by teachers has doubled because they always need to be in contact with the student via WhatsApp and the platform so they don't give up'.
Amid so many challenges, the pedagogical supervisor also sees lessons to be learned and positive aspects of the experience. One is for the student to take responsibility for his learning. 'We realized that they are still unable to do this because the skills to develop autonomy and discipline in contact with the language have not been properly worked out. To be a good language learner it is necessary
to put yourself in that position. We have reflected on this issue, which opens the door to a change in our approach to teaching '.
Another positive point, according to her, was the improvement of school materials and activities that can help students learn, even when they are away from the teacher. 'The statements and proposals for activities have been improved. For students accessing the platform, activities require audio recording. Thus, they can practice orality '.

(Adapted from: https://www.inglesnasescolas.org/en/headline/limited-learning-and-impaired-oral-skills-are-some-of-the-impacts-of-the-pandemic-on-englishteaching/. Accessed on June 14th, 2021)