The Use of Technology in English Medium Education

The outbreak of COVID-19 has changed our lives in many ways. As schools and universities have been forced to shut down, teaching and learning is now taking place in a virtual environment. The traditional way of teaching in a classroom where teachers and students can physically interact, discuss, and share information may not be as applicable in this online setting. Many lecturers may be ill-prepared for the challenge of delivering academic content online. Class size may have suddenly increased, the mode of interacting with students has changed (i.e. now in virtual settings using texting, emojis, polling or breakout rooms) and it is now necessary to deliver content knowledge using different software such as Zoom, Panopto or Microsoft Teams. Teaching has now become a live broadcast, and the format of assessment has also changed (i.e. online exam/quiz or even an open-book format). Students may have also felt frustration adjusting to this new format of online teaching and learning. Some may not have been prepared with the physical infrastructure to proceed with their studies online (e.g. internet availability, speed, data, webcam) and may have felt an invasion of their privacy to participate in such learning (e.g. displaying their home environment to their peers and teachers while online). This edited volume is to document the challenges that language teachers and learners may experience when teaching and learning online; explore how these challenges have been addressed, and identify creative solutions that will enable language teachers and learners to overcome these challenges in different educational contexts within English medium Education. In this introductory chapter, we introduce the topic of this book, describes the background of research in general, the development, different models, and provides an outline of the subsequent chapters of the book and highlights the significance of the research.