1) Language teachers at a university had to transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT) during lockdowns due to COVID-19. A survey of 16 teachers found they faced challenges with planning activities, getting student participation and engagement, and preventing cheating during assessments. 2) The majority of teachers surveyed found the transition to ERT challenging or extremely challenging. Specific difficulties included a lack of control over evaluations, student focus and participation, and ensuring students had their cameras on. 3) While ERT allowed universities to continue operating, teachers experienced technological and pedagogical challenges adapting lessons, resources, and assessments to an online format with some unfamiliar digital tools. Future research will examine how teachers overcame difficulties and what online practices

1. AND NOW WHAT (PART 1)?
Language teaching: How We Met the ERT Challenge
Joaquim Guerra
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2. ■ Educational institutions, including higher education moved to ERT, leading to the adoption of
digital tools that could replace face-to-face teaching, changing the dynamics of the teaching and
learning process and leading to the learning of digital skills that are expected to last over time,
even after the lockdowns are over.
■ Aim:
– to delimit to highlight the digital solutions found by the teachers, as well as both the
difficulties encountered and the opportunities to include these solutions in face-to-face
classes after the end of the lockdowns.
– For now, the study presents the participants and what difficulties they faced during the ERT.
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3. Methodology
■ The data were collected from language university teachers at my institution who taught during the
lockdown periods. Sixteen of the 30 teachers responded to the survey.
■ The questionnaire was constructed based on others referenced in the literature and is divided into
two parts:
– The first part collected sociodemographic and academic data, such as education, years of
experience, and what language(s) the respondent teaches. [The mains cope of these paper]
– The second part contains questions about their teaching experience during their lockdowns
(difficulties, challenges, and opportunities) and the relevance of this experience to their
current practice in the classroom.
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4. ■ The questionnaire was sent via email to language teachers and faculties and high school boards so
that it could be disseminated to all teachers who teach languages in my institution. Responses
were obtained online through a Google Form.
■ The e-survey data were analyzed using SPSS for the statistical data and content analysis for the
open-ended questions.
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5. Results and
Discussion
Table 1. Social-demographic
characteristics of the
participants
Characteristics
Gender
Male 2 (14.5%)
Female 14 (87,.5%)
Age range
30–34 1 (6.3%)
40–44 2 (12.5%)
45–49 3 (18,.8%)
50–54 4 (25%)
55–59 5 (31.3%)
60–65 1 (6.3%)
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6. Table 2. Academic background
of the participants
Academic background
Degree:
Master 6 (37.5%)
Ph.D. 10 (62.5%)
Post-graduate:
pre-service teacher training
yes 10 (62.5%)
no 6 (37.5%)
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7. Table 3. Years
of experience
teaching
languages
Years of
experience
0 to 10 2 (12.5%)
11 to 20 4 (25%)
21 to 30 9 (56.3%)
40 or + 1 (6.3%)
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8. Table 4.
Languages
taught by the
participants
Languages
Principal language taught
Spanish 2 (12.5%)
French 2 (12.5%)
Galician 1 (6.3%)
English 8 (50%)
Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PLE) 3 (18.8%)
None 1 (6.3%)
Second language
German 1 (6.3%)
Galician 1 (6.3%)
English 2 (12.5%)
Portuguese as a foreign language (PLE)
Portuguese (mother tongue)
None
7 (43.75%)
1 (6.3%)
4 (25%)
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9. Table 5. How they rate the move to ERT in terms of
digital skills
Neither challenging nor discouraging 3 (18.8%)
Challenging 9 (56.3%)
Extremely challenging 4 (25%)
total 16 (100%)
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10. ■ In the open-ended questions, the main difficulties expressed was:
– associated with their work in planning and organizing teaching activities and, on the other, getting the
students to participate (namely, orally) in the activities, preventing them from becoming distracted and
losing motivation.
– Adapting the resources they had, to have the time to do so and, at the same time, to discover new digital
instruments and to know how they work in planning the remote classes, as well as enthusing the
students to participate in them were the challenges expressed.
– Assessment, and especially making sure there is no cheating, was also one of the concerns expressed.
– Finally, for one of them the principal concern was about the urgency to transform the domestic space
into a working and teaching space. Many of us experience this difficulty, especially when the context
also kids and other adults having to share space to work and attend classes remotely.
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11. Table 6. Which aspects were more difficult
Aspects
The lack of control in the moments of evaluation 10 (62.5%)
The lack of control over the work of the class and the students 4 (25%)
The lack of control over the real presence of students in class 6 (37.5%)
Keeping students focused 10 (62.5%)
Getting students to turn on the camera 9 (56.3%)
Stimulating the oral participation of the students during the lessons 5 (31.3%)
The absence of digital materials 3 (18.8%)
The poor knowledge regarding the necessary digital technologies (teacher and/or students) 1 (6.3%)
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12. Conclusions and final observations
■ ERT has allowed universities not to close and to continue to provide learning opportunities to their
students by converting face-to-face classes into online classes.
■ The technological and pedagogical challenges were not much different from those experienced by
others in universities, countries, or different continents: the use of unknown or uncommon digital
resources in classrooms, to make an online class more dynamic, to carry out assessment moments,
or simply to have the students present and with the camera on.
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13. Future challenges of the research
■ In future research:
– How these difficulties were overcome will be analyzed along with what strengths and
weaknesses are considered to have existed.
– We will try to find out what remains of the learning experiences of the teachers during this
period and whether they continue to use digital tools to prepare and plan the teaching and
learning process in-presence.
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14. THANK YOU
Joaquim Guerra
(jguerra@ualg.pt)
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