Communication Over Virus-Induced Distance : A Qualitative Study on the Implications of English Language Teaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators across the world saw a sudden shifttowards conducting their teaching online. As research has revealed that interpersonalcommunication is among the most impacted areas of education, this study aims to investigatehow English language teachers in Sweden have adapted their methods and utilized thetechnologies they have been reliant on to conduct their teaching remotely to facilitate interstudent and student-teacher communication. Data was gathered by interviewing practicingteachers and observing English language lessons, and subsequently analyzed to describe theteacher experience as well as to identify how their methods had been adapted as a result ofthe shift to synchronous online teaching. As for the latter, the PICRAT model was utilized toidentify the types of technology implementation. The findings of this study suggest that theinterviewed teachers were not given sufficient organizational support, leading to theirimplementation of technology being inadequate for facilitating interpersonal communication.These findings support those of contemporary research on the topic of the shift tosynchronous online teaching. Finally, this study suggests that increased organizationalsupport in terms of adjustment time, long-term planning, training in technologyimplementation, and continuous evaluation of the same are required to maintain a highquality of English language education when moved online.