A Whole New World: Two EFL Teachers’ Journeys Adapting to the Covid-19 Pandemic

A Whole New World: Two EFL Teachers’ Journeys Adapting to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Pino Cutrone, Nagasaki University

Siewkee Beh, Osaka Ohtani University

The Covid-19 pandemic has completely changed the world and has impacted the lives of nearly everyone on the planet in one or way or another. In the field of EFL, not much is known in specific terms about how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the journeys of teachers. In this pre-recorded PowerPoint presentation, two EFL teachers in Japanese universities will share their personal experiences about how they dealt with and adapted to emergency remote teaching (ETR) in their respective contexts. One teaches in a faculty that focusses on English studies and cultural diversity at a national university in a mid-sized city in southern Japan, while the other teaches students in the Faculty of Education at a small private university in an urban center in the Kansai region of Japan. Upon describing some of the classes they are required to teach and offering some general information about their students, the presenters will engage in a dialogue designed to describe and compare their teaching journeys during this pandemic. This will include detailing what they each did initially when their classes were suddenly moved online and then explaining how they each altered and adapted their teaching methods along the way to best suit their students’ needs and the changing environment. From sharing and comparing their experiences, the presenters elucidate what they were able to learn from each other, as well as reflect on the successes and failures of the strategies and methods they have employed and how they will proceed moving forward.