Teaching English and German Language in Primary School during the COVID-19 Pandemic – Implications for Foreign Language Teaching Methodology / Osnovnoškolska nastava engleskoga i njemačkoga jezika za vrijeme pandemije virusa COVID-19 - implikacije za metodiku stranih jezika

Abstract

Abstract

Emergency remote education (ERE) during the COVID-19 pandemic placed unexpected challenges before foreign language teachers and shifted the focus on their competences to teach using digital tools. To gain insight into the ways in which primary school English and German language teachers answered the mentioned challenges, their teaching practice, and experiences in ERE during the 2020 lock-down period was investigated. In addition, their self-assessment of competence to apply digital technology in teaching was examined. The results show that the participants, although they mostly estimate their competence for teaching using digital technologies to be at the intermediate level, most frequently mediated the teaching content by giving instructions written in Word and by using videos on YouTube. Likewise, although there are indications that teachers are familiar with digital teaching tools, the results show a lack of their didactic-teaching knowledge and skills for applying the mentioned tools in teaching. These findings point to the need for greater presence of the issue of teaching via digital technologies in foreign language methodology courses. 

Key words: digital technology; ERE; teacher’s competence.

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Sažetak

Izvanredno obrazovanje na daljinu (IOD) za vrijeme pandemije COVID-19 stavilo je učitelje stranih jezika pred neočekivane izazove i usmjerilo fokus na njihove kompetencije za poučavanje pomoću digitalnih alata. U svrhu stjecanja uvida u načine na koje su osnovnoškolski učitelji engleskoga i njemačkoga jezika u Republici Hrvatskoj odgovorili na ove izazove, ispitani su njihova nastavna praksa i iskustva za vrijeme IOD-a u lockdownu 2020. te samoprocjena njihovih kompetencija za primjenu digitalne tehnologije u poučavanju. Rezultati pokazuju da su ispitanici, iako većinom svoje kompetencije za poučavanje pomoću digitalnih tehnologija procjenjuju na srednjoj razini, nastavne sadržaje najčešće posredovali pomoću pisanih uputa u Wordu i videa s Youtubea. Isto tako, iako postoje naznake da su učitelji upoznati s digitalnim alatima za poučavanje, rezultati upućuju na nedostatak njihovih didaktičko-metodičkih znanja i vještina za primjenu tih alata u nastavi. Ovakvi nalazi ukazuju na nužnost snažnijega uključivanja pitanja poučavanja pomoću digitalnih tehnologija u kolegije metodike nastave stranih jezika.

Ključne riječi: digitalna tehnologija; IOD; kompetencije učitelja