The Covid-19 pandemic has forced Ukraine, like other countries, to move to distance education. The study aims to analyze the distance learning experience of Ukrainian philology students, to find out the pros and cons of distance education, those things that motivate students, and the challenges they face while studying online. The survey consisted of a questionnaire and embraced 105 respondents. The survey goal was to collect data that would allow concluding about the effectiveness of distance education for Ukrainian philology students at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, particularly for the study of foreign languages. The significant results of the survey include: obtaining reliable data on the effectiveness of distance learning of Ukrainian philology students through their feedback in questionnaires, online testing, a variety of writing assignments, and assessment in the online classroom, finding out the most effective distance learning tools, the main features of teacher – students interactions in a distance-learning environment. The research proves that Ukrainian philology students overall positively evaluate their distance learning experience. It does not negatively impact students’ foreign language learning motivation. Despite a positive attitude to distance learning, Ukrainian philology students face particular challenges connected with access to devices, lack of information and communications technology skills, Internet connection, and lack of communication with their peers. The finding reveals, whatever are the benefits of distance education, it cannot entirely replace face-to-face learning.

Reading is a complex process that involves cognitive, physical, intellectual, cultural, and linguistic processes. Research shows that learners who read extensively tend to accomplish a high level of academic achievement. In Malaysia, the educational goal has shifted from simply forming literate citizens to nurturing a well-educated and intellectual society. Promoting efficient reading habits can be an effective approach to realizing this goal. This study, therefore, aims to examine reading habits and ascertain their correlation with reading achievement among final-year English as a Second Language (ESL) learners in selected Malaysian secondary schools. The study utilized a cross-sectional survey in which data were gathered from a sample of 351 ESL learners using questionnaires and written tests as data-gathering instruments. The analysis was conducted by means of descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and simple linear regression. The findings revealed a significant relationship between ESL learners’ reading habits and their reading achievement. Additionally, ESL learners’ reading habits contribute significantly to their reading achievement. These findings highlight the significance of reading habits in determining ESL learners’ reading achievement itself. However, this study is limited to reading habits and reading achievement among students in selected secondary schools. Thus, further research may replicate this study in the context of computer-assisted or blended learning

Prepositions form a hurdle for several EFL learners, Arabs in particular. One major catalyst is that the preposition systems in English and Arabic rarely correspond to one another. Most scholars who researched this area concentrated on the problem itself, rather than finding a successful remedy that can empower these students to masterfully handle such a thorny area. This study is novel inasmuch as it concerns itself with finding means of facilitating this language area for Arab learners. It reveals the effectiveness of using translation to teach English prepositions to these learners. The research question of this study is: do students who have received explicit tuition and adequate practice on the use of English prepositions in translated texts naturally perform better using such grammatical items in subsequently translated texts than those who have not been instructed on such exemplars in similar language contexts? Sixty students at the Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait participated in the field experiment. The study paradigm had a pre-test/post-test protocol. While the pre-test included four fill-in-the-gap exercises, the post-test contained three Arabic passages which participants were required to translate into English. The findings showed that teaching prepositions explicitly in translated texts is a viable technique for EFL learners’ mastery of such grammatical items. This has implications for EFL specialists and syllabus designers.

This study investigates the effects of authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities on the oral proficiency of Thai undergraduate students. The study was conducted at Prince of Songkhla University, Thailand during the first semester (June to September) of 2010. The study consisted of four research instruments and the data were analyzed using Independent Samples t-test to determine whether the authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities had improved the students’ oral fluency and accuracy in the target language. The findings indicated statistically significant differences between the two groups, wherein the experimental group performed better on both fluency and accuracy than the control group. Therefore, based on the findings of the current study, it can be concluded that authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities involving a series of sequential events are effective in enhancing learners’ oral proficiency in programs of English as a foreign language in the context of Thailand English education.

The Algerian educational system is competency-based; therefore, it focuses on developing learners’ competencies and skills through a learner-centered methodology that fosters autonomy. To help teachers apply such methodology, the English syllabus designers recommend using Project-Based Learning, active learning, and problem-solving strategies to help learners develop 21st-century skills and communicate effectively, collaborate, and think critically and creatively. However, those methods and strategies are absent in classrooms, and therefore critical thinking is not promoted. In this context, two questions are raised to affirm this hypothesis. (1) To what extent do teachers respect the syllabus designers’ recommendations? (2) Why do teachers avoid using the recommended methods and strategies? To investigate those questions and achieve the aim of this research, the researcher carried out an in-depth quantitative analysis of 30 anonymous classroom observation reports written by a certified English teacher trainer. To address the qualitative aspect of the research, the researcher held a semi-structured interview with the same teacher trainer. The reports that were examined contained 150 comments on teachers’ classroom practices and assessment methodologies. The results showed that English teachers partially respect the syllabus designers’ recommendations. Besides, the teachers’ methods, classroom practices, and assessment approaches are mainly based on direct instruction and language content acquisition rather than on reflective and problem-solving learning; therefore, they are not conducive to implementing and developing learners’ critical thinking. The conclusion drawn from the data analysis of the current research is that teachers’ hesitance to use the recommended pedagogical approach and methods is due to some hindrances faced by teachers, namely classrooms overcrowdedness, the content-based baccalaureate exam and lack of time due to the lengthy English programs.

This qualitative study investigated the effect of Saudi EFL post-observation conferences on female teachers’ professional development through assessing teachers’ reflection. It also examined to what extent these conferences are considered reflection-enhancing. Moreover, it contributed towards filling the gap in the literature regarding this area because of two reasons. The first is that there is a paucity of research on functional and thematic analyses of post-observation conferences either internationally or in the Arab world. The second is that most studies conducted in this area have only been surveyed. The sample consisted of 30 Saudi EFL female participants divided into 10 supervisors and 20 teachers. They voluntarily recorded the post-observation conferences conducted by them in Saudi schools in Riyadh region. Two analytic systems are used to analyze the recordings: a functional analytic system and a thematic one. The findings showed that post-observation conferences do not contribute towards enhancing teachers’ reflective skills as a key element of teachers’ professional development.

This research attempted to study how using an advance organizer model can influence meaningful learning of new concepts for ESL learners in collaborative classrooms. The objectives were 1) to study the effects of using the advance organizer model, and 2) to study the student achievement after using the advance organizer model to compare to the 80 percent criterion. The study sample is purposively limited to 20 students in a class of the Introduction to Skills for Leadership and Management at Mahidol University International Demonstration School, Thailand. Post-test and observation forms were used as research tools. The data were analyzed by content analysis, mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed that 1) The effects occurred in both instructional and nurturant effects. The students engaged effectively in learning and acquiring information. Students discussed and exchanged information using existing knowledge and experiences to connect and explain the ideas to others. The instructional design also meets the steps of the advance organizer model. The teacher designed the tasks of learning follows the three phases of the advance organizer format. 2) The student achievement after using the model to meet the criteria of 80. This study reflects that the model can influence meaningful learning of new concepts and improve academic achievements for ESL learners in collaborative classrooms. However, few researchers have addressed the problem of collaborative learning in large courses. Hence, further study should focus on implementing the model with higher numbers of students to confirm its effectiveness.

No previous studies have employed sociocultural theory and the notion of collaborative dialogue to examine collaborative writing in Saudi Arabia, where students favor writing individually. Exploring this topic is significant because of the importance the Saudi education system places on learning English, especially at the university level. Therefore, this longitudinal classroom-based study tested how collaborative writing affected the development of university students learning English as a foreign language in Saudi Arabia. The 46 participants were evenly divided into a control group, who wrote essays individually, and an experimental group, who worked on essays in small groups. Both groups took a pre-test before the eight-week intervention and a post-test at the end. The experimental group also took an end-of-study questionnaire. Although both groups showed improvement, the experimental group improved significantly more on the post-test than the control group and expressed positive attitudes toward collaborative writing on the questionnaire. The study concludes with theoretical and pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research.

Identifying language affiliation among children for family immigrants is crucial for one’s language identity. This study aimed to determine the role played by Arab families in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Austria, and Britain to attain language affiliation among their children. It also aims to identify the challenges facing families living in these countries in achieving language affiliation among their children. The study population consisted of all the families that live in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in addition to all the Arab families that live in Austria and Britain and the study sample included (120) parents. The researcher adopted the descriptive-analytical approach and used the questionnaire as the study tool. The study reached several results; first, the role played by families in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Austria, and United Kingdom to attain language affiliation among their children got a high degree of response. Second, the challenges facing activating the family’s role in attaining language affiliation of their children in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Austria have got a high degree of response, while in Britain, they obtained a very high degree of response. The study recommended involving all family members in accessing different and creative ways of practicing their native language and activating the role of social media in developing the language affiliation of children.

Despite Palestinian university students’ problems with the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-based Test, no researchers approached this research area in the Palestinian English as a Foreign Language context. The present study attempted to answer a question focusing on Palestinian university students’ problems with the reading sections of the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-based Test and the revised Test of English as a Foreign Language paper-delivered test. The participants were 65 fourth-year students studying English at Al-Aqsa University. The researcher employed four instruments: a test, a group semi-structured interview, and two individual semi-structured interviews. Results showed the students’ problems with the reading sections of the two types of tests, such as the irrelevance of the topics of the tests to the students’ content background knowledge, students’ lack of exposure to lengthy passages, students’ slow reading speed, and the students’ lack of linguistic proficiency. Additionally, the study offered many recommendations for Educational Testing Service experts and Al-Aqsa university students and instructors.

Politeness strategies are of significant importance to maintain the face of the addressee. Senders of formal congratulatory letters seek to create a positive image in the minds of their addresses by performing particular illocutionary acts and face-saving acts (FSAs) in the form of written texts. To the best knowledge of the researcher, this topic received little attention from linguistic researchers, especially on the pragma-stylistic level. The importance of this study arises from the fact that congratulatory formal letters are an effective tool in the successful performance of foreign relations and thus deserve investigation. The current study investigates the pragma-stylistic aspects of illocutionary acts and FSA Politeness Strategies in some selected English and Arabic formal congratulatory letters written by English and Arabic officials. Findings reveal that assertive constitutes the highest frequency in English data, while expressive occurs more in Arabic. Besides, the FSA politeness strategy (Use appropriate forms of address) includes most of the total frequency in both English and Arabic data, which still it appeared more in English. Additionally, (Exaggerate interest, sympathy with H) comes next in Arabic, while (Be optimistic) appeared more in English. In addition, results show that exaggeration (Hyperbole) is the prevalent stylistic device used in Arabic. Arabic officials usually exaggerate the glorification of people in authoritative positions, while English high officials tend to be more moderate. The findings will be helpful in cross-cultural comparative studies and other related fields.

The paper is focused on stylistic features of English fantasy texts. The research materials include four fantasy novels written by British and American authors of the late 20th century: Jordan’s The Eye of the World, Martin’s A Game of Thrones, Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The research question of the study lies in need to systematize expressive means and stylistic devices used in the texts and distinguish the common stylistic features of English fantasy texts. To do this, the researchers implement the notion of a stylistic portrait of English fantasy text, and the main aim of the paper is to provide its definition and description. The study employed the complex of linguistic research methods, including analysis and generalization of theoretical sources, contextual analysis and the elements of quantitative analysis of linguistic units used in the texts. Based on three essential aspects of a stylistic portrait, the paper shows that the English fantasy texts are characterized by the dominance of expressive means and stylistic devices at the syntactic level of language. In addition, the researchers identified the most productive stylistically marked linguistic units at each level of language correlated with the semantic field within which they functioned, and studied connotative dominants in these texts.

This study aims to highlight the utilization of literary genre as a well-liked method for instructing both language skills (that is to say, writing, reading, speaking, and listening) and language fields (that are grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary). Why employing literary textbooks in foreign language classrooms and the main motives for choosing appropriate fictional texts in these classrooms are emphasized to make the reader acquainted with the motivating incentives and standards for foreign language teachers’ employing and picking erudite textbooks. Additionally, the teaching of language skills and literary genre gains benefits of diverse fields of literature (like drama, poems, tragedy and tales) to language teaching and to several difficulties met by language teachers in the sphere of instructing English using fiction (i.e. shortage of training in the field of literature teaching English as a Second English and Teaching English as a Foreign Language curriculums, deficiency of precise aims describing the function of fiction in English as a Foreign Language and English as a Second Language, foreign language teachers’ not possessing the experience and preparation in literature, and lack of suitable teaching tools to be utilized by foreign language teachers in a class milieu) are taken into consideration.

Motivation is the major contributor to the students’ learning English as a second language. However, varying reasons have been suggested by different researchers and theorists to explain the reasons and dimensions of this motivation. Therefore, the study aimed to evaluate the motivation to learn English as a foreign language (EFL) among 157 Saudi Arabian university students. The instrument used for the analysis was a modified version of the motivation scale developed by Wen (1997), which measures motivation based on six subscales: integrative, instrumental, effort, valence, expectation, and ability. In addition, students’ motivation was compared among students with different English language levels using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) on six motivation subscales. The results of the MANOVA revealed that there was no significant difference among students of different levels of English knowledge when each level was compared separately. Nevertheless, when comparing a merged group of students with English level knowledge of 1st to 3rd with the group of 4th level, the motivation of the latter group was statistically significantly higher. Furthermore, the difference in mean values was significant for integrative, effort, valence, and ability subscales. Thus, the findings of this research depicted that instrumental and integrative motivations could be the main contributor to students’ motivation to learn English as a foreign language.

The main aim of this study is to determine the advantages and disadvantages of distance teaching and promoting Intercultural Competence in learning foreign languages in the Azerbaijani higher education system. Nowadays the growing tendency of remote education proves that, education has become more reachable in comparison to the past decades. At the same time, distance education has brought new demands and regulations to the education system. The COVID-19outbreak has necessitated the online teaching process resulting in specific problems, including the maintenance of interaction in online teaching. Thus, this study explores both benefits and drawbacks of teaching foreign languages through distance learning in Azerbaijan. In this research, a quantitative research method in the form of a survey has been utilized to explore the tendency of teaching intercultural competence in foreign language classes at universities. Finally, it may be concluded that distance education provides enormous opportunities to practice intercultural communicative competence by using modern information technologies and does not differ much from face-to-face learning.

The Algerian universities have witnessed significant changes since the establishment of the three-tier system composed of Licence, Master, and Doctorate (LMD). The latter necessitates many changes in the learning process as well as teaching methods. Yet, to achieve self-directed learning, the learner should first achieve autonomy at the personal level. Thus, this paper is mainly devoted to analyzing the impress of Algerian cultural and social traditions on the development of self-directed learning. This study addresses the following question: Do the Algerian cultural and social traditions enhance and facilitate self-directed learning or impede its implementation at university? The main aim of this paper is to investigate the aspects of the Algerian culture that hinder the promotion of self-directed learning. The research has been conducted in Saida University among Master students. To investigate the socio-cultural impact on the development of self-directedness, the researcher used a questionnaire and an interview that was related to Hofstede’s six-D Model. Discussing the Algerian culture through the lens of Hofstede’s six-D Model helped the researcher to diagnose the reasons behind the failure to promote self-directedness. The main finding of this research is that the collectivist nature of the Algerian culture retards the progress of self-directed learning. This paper also suggests that if the Algerian culture does not favor self-directed learning, educators should adopt new approaches and strategies that engage their learners in the learning experiences. Educators should counterbalance the parochial and paternalistic traditions with glocalization and multiple perspective curricula.

This study of 87 Saudi female university students aimed to discover whether they experience difficulties learning to listen to spoken English. Acknowledging that listening is an important part not just of learning a new language but also of day-to-day communication, data was collected using an online questionnaire. Participants were asked to respond to a series of statements designed to test four constructs relating to their attitudes to learning English language skills in general (a); learning listening skills specifically (b); their attitudes towards listening activities (c); and (d) their attitudes towards improving their listening skills. The results showed that most of participants felt that speaking and listening were the most important skills to learn, but listening was also the most challenging. Reading was felt to be the most effortless skill to learn, as well as the most commonly used, suggesting that frequency of use contributes to students’ perceptions of the ease of learning a skill. Participants’ difficulties with learning to listen to English were associated with speech rate, pronunciation, nervousness, limited vocabulary, and lack of background information. However, students also expressed positive attitudes towards improving their listening skills. Understanding students’ attitudes to listening skills and their problems with listening may help teachers improve the way they teach these skills. This may in turn improve students’ listening comprehension not only in universities but also in schools.

Each teacher evaluates students’ learning outcomes in their own way, depending on their own ideas and beliefs about teaching, learning, and assessing. It impacts on how pupils work. As a result, concentrating on instructors’ perspectives in general appears to be vital, and exposing EFL teachers’ evaluation concepts is crucial and requires considerable investigation. The current study examines teachers’ assessment conceptions of English as a foreign language (EFL) at a Saudi University. Specifically, it investigates EFL university teachers’ assessment conceptions using Brown’s (2006) Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment Abridged Inventory, four-factor assessment inventory conceptions that include variables like student accountability, school accountability, progress, and irrelevance. The survey employed a Likert scale with response options ranging from one (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree). The researcher gathered the study’s data using Google Forms and administered an online questionnaire to fifteen EFL English teachers in English Language Center at a Saudi University called Afaq University (pseudonym), Saudi Arabia. The obtained quantitative data were analyzed manually by descriptive statistics. The findings demonstrated that of all participants, the enhancement principle had the primary value, whereas the conceptions of irrelevance, on the other hand, were discovered to have the lowest level of agreement. The study presented some pedagogical implications and then concluded with the need for further triangulated exploration of the phenomenon.

Language teaching and learning have been significantly transformed by the advent of online technology. Learning and information-gathering have been dramatically boosted by technology. Owing to online learning, physical geography is no longer a major obstacle. However, there has not been much study to portray online technologies and online learning improving teachers’ proficiency in the English language. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which online learning has improved teachers’ language proficiency. About 201 teachers from eight districts in Malaysia were enrolled in an online course. The study was conducted online for three months. Data was collected from an evaluation survey obtained at the end of the period. Responses gathered based on descriptive analysis of the course content, overall experience, and comments derived from the survey was then analyzed from the data. The findings revealed that the teachers are very positive towards the course and found it constructive in enhancing their professional development. The results also indicated that teachers have also improved their language component upon being enrolled in the course. These documents that all the language skills have been enhanced, and they are very motivated. Therefore, future research should focus on a specific language component in order to gain a deeper insight of continuum from this study.

In recent years, an increasing number of non-native EFL teachers have been recruited to teach English in English dominant settings. Grounded in sociocultural views of identity, the research question of this study focused on how contextual factors influence the professional identity construction of three EFL teachers in a Saudi School in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The study employs a qualitative case study method, where in-depth interviews and classroom observation are utilised. Drawing on Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice framework to analyse and interpret the data, the analysis indicates various factors affecting the EFL Saudi teachers’ professional identity. Findings reveal that identity formation is a complex and highly contextual process. The participants in this study construct their identities by engaging in their teaching environment, shared practices with their peers, engaged in student-parents relationship and participated in professional development. Through transitioning into the English as a second language (ESL) setting, the EFL teachers have demonstrated how professional identity is a dynamic and socially situated construct. As a result, these teachers’ identities may be transformed by the global educational settings in which they work. The findings contribute to our understanding of the importance of a conducive professional environment in supporting teachers to develop their professional identities.

On the 21st century scent of educational development, ‘dialogism’ hogs the limelight of leading ‎‎academics, mapping ergo a stiff stronghold for active learning pedagogies. ‎Regarding the field of literature more sensibly considered in English as Foreign Language (EFL) ‎‎context, the plea for embracing interactive talks reverberates discernably in the air, yet, engaging ‎‎practices are still an overlooked real-world praxis. Given this reality, the current paper ‎endeavours ‎to endorse the implementation of a new dialogic model that extrapolates its foundation-‎stone ‎techniques from both of Bakhtin’s (1983) discursive dialogues and Socratic argumentations. The ‎pertinent ‎problematics in this study is to investigate the effect of this model on enhancing ‎learners’ higher-order critical thinking skills (HOTSs). To fulfil this target, the researcher has ‎embarked on an ‎Experimental Study based on a pre/post-testing, carried on painstakingly with ‎second-year EFL students ‎at Oran2 University, Algeria. Substantially, after appraising the ‎treatment results through SPSS, the ‎study reveals that adopting such a dialogic model is a robust ‎sinew for “Bloometizing” EFL ‎literature classroom, namely by stimulating and revitalizing the ‎learners’ cognitive reasoning potentials at ‎a very high complexity. Besides, in-class interactions ‎help the students build empathy with ‎literary texts and strengthen their analytical strategies. ‎From this vantage point, the paper, finally, hopes that teachers adopt this dialogic model as a ‎fitting instructional capstone to bringing literature ‎back to life before the learners’ eyes and to add ‎the ‘wow’ factor inside literature classrooms.‎

The present study attempts to examine verbal/nonverbal impoliteness in the classroom interaction and outside it in one of the movies, namely, The Marva Collins. Impoliteness, which is significantly studied within pragmatics, is a negative attitude towards particular behaviors. It always presumes to have emotional concerns for at least one participant who has caused it. This study is an attempt to examine verbal/nonverbal impoliteness in The Marva Collins movie. The study aims to investigate the different types of impoliteness strategies used in the four selected scenes and find out whether the speaker’s status has anything to do with the types of impoliteness. Besides, the functions performed are also examined by following a qualitative method of research. To achieve the aim of the study, the researchers adopt Culpeper’s model of impoliteness (1996, 2005). The study has concluded that positive impoliteness is the most dominant type of impoliteness, followed by withholding politeness. Moreover, the characters in The Marva Collins mostly employ affective impoliteness rather than the other functions of impoliteness. It is indicated to let the speaker imply the duty of the hearer to produce a negative emotional state. As a final point, Culpeper is the workable model used in analysing the data of this study.

Conceptualization of foreign language teaching as a cross-cultural interaction means engaging learners in various cultural mediations. Language use becomes a form of interpretative architecture of a target language. Understanding language use from a discursive perspective develops meta-pragmatic awareness and interpretative capacities of learners. The study answers the question of how to design the architecture of context analysis. This research aims to determine the effective ways of interpretative engagement of learners with aspects of pragmatics in the Ukrainian university setting. The study investigates how the process of interaction shapes the engagement of learners in practices of noticing, reflection, and comparison of cross-cultural situations. The data came from a case study on cross-cultural language learning within the second semester, 2021. The study analyzes the audio-recording of the classes, researcher notes, and post-course interviews of 24 participants. This research used a method of the content analysis. The study of the results, based on six categories (narrative analysis, discourse analysis, semiotic analysis, interpretative analyses, conversation analysis, and critical analysis), showed that the learners started to consider the nature of their cross-cultural mediation. The research proved that through such an interpretative engagement, students become engaged into working with languages and cultures. The study presents some recommendations for language teachers to create a meaning-making process from multiple perspectives.

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a modern branch of linguistics. The current study applies CDA to a televised speech of El-Sisi, the Egyptian president, on the 47th anniversary of October Victory in its English version. The study aims to reveal ideologies behind the publishing of the speech and its role in shaping the mentality of Egyptians. The researcher applies Fairclough’s (2014a) three-dimensional model. She also uses Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) metafunctions of systemic functional grammar (SFG) as the tool for analysis. The analysis is mainly qualitative. The research answers some questions. The first one is: ‘How the constructive ideologies are expressed through their linguistic structures and features in the English version of El-Sisi’s speech on the 47th of October victory ceremony?’ The second is ‘what is the explanation for including such confidential ideologies in the published English version of El-Sisi’s speech?’ A significant finding is that the delivered messages of the speech reflect some ideological orientations. The ideological orientations are affected and determined by the dominant social ideologies and the general orientation of institutions in Egypt. The study aims to help readers use their skills in analyzing any discourse systematically. The study also highlights the fundamental ideologies needed to direct Egyptians for the benefit of their country. Future researches can focus on the role of words in reflecting ideologies or the role of explicitation and implicitation techniques in conveying beliefs and confidential ideologies.

The past two decades witnessed increased attention in the role of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) in improving the English as a second language(ESL) students’ written linguistic accuracy. Several methods were suggested, including the use of the electronic means of providing corrective feedback. The electronic methods proved to be effective despite the limited numbers and contexts. However, the extent of these studies is still unknown. Furthermore, no comprehensive review of the studies had been conducted to date. This systematic literature review will identify and classify the research on providing ESL teachers with Electronic Written Corrective Feedback (EWCF). A survey of several experimental and analytical studies that focused on testing the effect of different methods of EWCF on ESL students was conducted, covering the period between 2006 and 2020. Two major groups of studies emerged from this research, and several gaps were identified. The research concluded with several recommendations regarding the potential tracks for future research on EWCF. The current research will serve as a guideline for ESL writing practitioners and researchers on future teacher corrective feedback in second language writing.

Multilingualism has established itself as a separate area of research in linguistic studies for the two last decades. Therefore, the present study aims at examining Algerian Multilingual students’ perceptions of linguistic distance i.e., psychotypology, between their first Language Arabic and Second language French and third language English. It focuses on the role of psychotypology as a constraining factor of cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition that may lead to the activation of the background languages in the production of L3 English. Therefore, the researcher used a mixed research method to explore which typological or psychotypological languages L1 Arabic or L2 French would be the source of language transfer in L3 production. Forty students participated in this study, and data was gathered through a psychotypological questionnaire. The results of a qualitative and quantitative analysis showed students perceive French as a closed language to English in most the language aspects and they used it to fill a linguistic gap in their English production. It also showed that psychotypology is a complex concept that would affect students’ language choice in L3 production as well as a crucial factor in determining the source language of transfer. The findings indicated that further investigations of Psychotypology in L3 production are necessary.

Defining the functional nature of English anthroponyms in literary texts for children is complicated philological problems as these language elements perform an essential role in creating the system of images of any literary work. The complex study of anthroponyms functioning in literary texts for children is rather important because it meets the requirements of a new scientific paradigm of literary onomastics. The purpose of the research is to describe a scientific assumption of the phenomenon of literary anthroponymy in general, and that of proper names and literary anthroponyms in particular, and describe their functional peculiarities in literary texts for children. Special attention is paid to anthroponyms and their stylistic expressive abilities, which originate from the time when ancient philosophers regarded proper names in terms of their semantics and purpose of use only. The rapid development of literary onomastics makes it possible to point out different kinds of onyms, anthroponyms, toponyms, and the names of characters in fiction. The key feature of literary anthponyms is their distinguishing stylistic possibilities. It is proved that the functional nature of anthroponyms lies in the fact that they operate in literary texts as vivid markers of the author’s intention, implementing definite ideological, esthetic, and cultural tasks. In a word, they update stylistic features (informative and emotive) at the textual level. Consequently, the wide use of stylistic expressive properties of anthroponyms in literary works led to the need to conceptualize their functional nature in literary texts for children.

This study explored the theme of unity in President Joe Biden’s Inauguration Speech on the 20th of January from a linguistic perspective. The main research question was: How was the theme of unity conveyed in this particular speech through linguistic choices? The significance of this work lies in the fact that this specific speech has not been subjected to academic linguistic investigation to date. In addition, this speech is unique as it came to mark the beginning of the new presidency with a direct focus on unity as a recurring theme. The methodology adopted a qualitative analytical analysis of the concept of unity as referred to in this speech. The study followed a thematic analysis in approaching the speech text. The researchers scrutinized every utterance for clues on the possible linguistic features that portrayed the theme of unity conveyed by the speaker. They also examined the lexical items concerning the concept of unity in the speech. The results showed that the speaker used appropriate language in addressing the theme of unity. The speaker used religion and history as a source of rhetorical persuasive devices. The overall tone of the speech was confident, reconciliatory, and hopeful. The study concluded with some implications for pedagogy and academic research.

Cultural knowledge is an integral part of the language teaching process in EFL situations. The difficulties facing students in this area have negatively affected their ability to communicate successfully and translate accurately. Nonetheless, the debate over the significance of involving cultural aspects in the language classroom has continued in the local Saudi context. The language weaknesses resulting from the lack of sufficient cultural perspective can also be observed and confirmed in this region. Students’ understanding of culture-specific words and concepts is the area that is affected the most when a disconnection occurs between language teaching and cultural knowledge. Thus, in this paper, the researcher examines the impact of this disconnection by outlining the extent to which cultural knowledge is incorporated into EFL language courses. This study also focuses on documenting the language use examples that illustrate the difficulties faced by students in this regard, which is an aspect that is missing from several previous studies in the local context. The data examined in this study were collected through open-ended questionnaires and organizing focus group discussions. The analysis of the results reveals that the cultural component of language teaching is not satisfactory for the English major students surveyed in this study. The research participants also described the kind of cultural knowledge missing from their curriculum and the specific areas affected by that. The study concludes with several suggested solutions that focus on the resources available to Saudi students (and other students in the same circumstances) and on utilizing the most recent developments in online education in the past two years.

The study deals with the subject of learning languages online. Many studies (Chelghoum & Chelghoum, 2020; Arabeche & Soudani, 2021) have been carried out over the last year to investigate the needs of the pedagogical changes as a result of the world health situation. The Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc all over the globe. This unprecedented situation created huge complications for citizens worldwide, with emergency offices suddenly appearing in students’ and workers’ kitchens, bedrooms, and living rooms due to the large-scale lockdowns and stringent restrictions on movement put into place by governments. The sudden and unexpected nature of this “new normal” left very little time for acclimatisation to the online learning modes, with students and teachers alike adapting and improvising. This study aims to investigate the difficulties of Algerian students and analysing the interactive techniques which could be applied in language studying, and overcoming the barriers of computer screens. In this case, we address the goals used in university teaching in Algeria to be able to understand the situation and draw a possible new strategy to achieve a quality education. First, the topic is introduced, followed by an analysis of teaching and learning methods during the COVID-19 pandemic. Afterwards, the methodology is defined, highlighting the relation between the Psycholinguistics (Hanim Rahmat, 2018) and the Communicative Approach (Hymes, 1972). A qualitative study is carried out to describe the problems faced by the students and offer some possible recommendations, taking into account the social context experienced during the 2020-2021 academic year.

One of the most critical problems of the Linguistics of text is the structure study of the literary text, principles of its organization following the rules of the compositions that suggest splitting the linguistic work into the interconnected parts. In this regard, it is necessary to research the individual compositional and significant elements of the text and their role in forming the whole work. The paper focuses on revealing structural and syntactic properties of the author’s digressions, namely, detecting such concepts as integration/non-integration of the author’s digressions in the English literary prose. Integrated and non-integrated types of author’s digressions into the academic space of the text have been distinguished based on interpretative-textual and compositional analysis. The analysis of the text-forming function of the author’s digression contributed to defining the features of the cohesion of the literary text and included in its elements. The analysis results show that the author’s digressions can be both integrated and non-integrated. Non-integration of the author’s digression lies in their composition-semantic independence, and integrated author’s digressions are the ones that the author weaves into the text with different types of cohesion. This research promotes the studies of the cognitive aspect of the author’s digression in the different genres literary texts of English and American prose.

It is generally known that textbook is the first and the most vital tool for teachers to proceed with successful English language teaching activities. Hence, it is indispensable for all language teachers to evaluate books critically and choose a suitable textbook. This article aimed to explore the different features of two famous college English textbooks utilized in the researcher’s school of Wenshan University, Yunnan, China, in alignment with the China Standards English framework, and whether the two books satisfied local students’ needs and proficiency. It is hoped to provide an empirical example of textbook evaluation from a Chinese context and inspire local teachers to make possible improvements during evaluating and selecting a textbook. To achieve the objective, a checklist aligned with the framework and a questionnaire was utilized for the collection of comparable data. Moreover, content analysis and percentage were used during the analysis of the two textbooks and students’ perception about the textbooks, respectively. Results of the evaluation indicated that the two books are not aligned with the China Standards English framework suggested levels. Both textbook levels tend to be lower than the framework demanded levels, namely level five and six. Students also implied that the textbooks are accessible and seem not to help their language skills improvement. The recommendation is that these textbooks need to be adapted and modified for the English educational practices to suit local students’ needs and English proficiency to achieve the China Standards English suggested levels.

The learning needs of English students have been researched over the past decades in different countries, especially among non-speaking English ones. The core goal of these studies was to examine if learner needs/wants and learning outcomes of the English course/curriculum provided are sufficiently matched, i.e., whether or not students feel satisfied (because their needs/wants are met). Expanding this line of research, the current study attempts to find out the needs for English learning among gifted high school students in the current Vietnam context by seeking the answer to the main question: How do these students report their needs for English learning? The findings are supposed to provide useful insights into this English learning – teaching setting. One hundred and eighty English-majored students from five gifted high schools in five provinces of Vietnam participated in a questionnaire-interview survey. The obtained results show that most participants opted for English because they needed it for future employment and cross-cultural/national communications for long-term purposes. As a result, they wanted to practice more English speaking and listening skills rather than other components of English knowledge (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary) and skills (reading, writing). Yet, their English practices in the classroom did not place much emphasis on speaking-listening skills, i.e., their needs were not very satisfactorily met. Some of the findings echo those of previous research, and some are first reported in the current study.

Generally, learning outcomes are not always as expected; instead, they show a degree of variation depending on various factors. Likewise, despite the fact of providing writing instruments in Saudi EFL classrooms, the outcomes are not always as expected. The reasons may range from classroom atmosphere to individual cognition and many other related variants around. However, it is a small attempt in teachers’ perspective to see if anything is lacking in the implementation of ‘teaching writing strategies’ for EFL classrooms. To verify this assumption between practicality and literature, this paper intends to explore ‘the implementation of writing strategies of faculty’ during teaching writing skills. In addition, this paper also attempts to identify what sort of discourse tools and metacognitive strategies university faculty are incorporating in their teaching, and what is ignored or not used up to the mark while enhancing Saudi EFL students’ meta-cognitive awareness. To collect responses for this study, a survey questionnaire was administered among 36 English language educators of the Jazan region. The results of this study revealed that there is a component that was given minor importance during teaching, though teachers used other strategies and tools extensively. Furthermore, one of the aims of the study is to demonstrate how discourse can be used to offer a solution in the present scenario. In a nutshell, this research recommends the significance of the neglected subcomponent and its importance in improving writing metacognition.

The article covers the issues related to implementing intercultural events into teaching foreign languages to Ukrainian university students. Against the backdrop of the requirements set by the Bachelor Educational Programs learning outcomes, the main aim of this research is to investigate how the integration of international work and methodological tools of teaching foreign languages to Ukrainian students can contribute to their academic success. The significance of the study manifests itself through the analysis of the methodological background for successful teaching foreign languages to Ukrainian students under current transformed teaching/learning conditions. These questions are considered: How can culture-related activities contribute to learning foreign languages? What learning outcomes can students have? The authors used the context and research tools as follows: the methods of systemic and content-oriented analyses to analyze and generalize the theoretical bases for the topic under study, to systemize the results of the survey (education-based intercultural activities, students’ learning outcomes); focused observation using the register as a tool for data collecting for two semesters each in six groups of second-year students majoring in Philology and Lingua Didactics at Ushynsky University. The authors presented a sum of main findings: contribution of the programs of distance-based academic mobility to the teaching/learning process; internationalization of the educational process; adaptation of a criterial corpus for assessing Ukrainian students’ learning acquisitions in English, Chinese, Turkish, and Korean in terms of linguistic and cultural knowledge and skills. The article contains recommendations for English, Chinese, Turkish, and Korean online and offline classes

At Covid-19 pandemic, people worldwide were attacked by a dangerous and widely spread virus known as Coronavirus. Kids are not matured enough to understand why they have to stay home and follow health instructions. Animated learning videos are designed for kids for the purpose of making them aware of the virus. The objectives of the present study are: (1) Examining one of Burke’s pentad (1969) represented by ”agency,” in Covid-19 kids videos, (2) Investigating the rhetorical devices used in the selected data to inform, persuade and make kids aware of what is meant by covid-19, (3) Revealing the dominant rhetorical device. The main question that arises here is; “what are the rhetorical strategies used in the discourse of the learning videos on Covid-19”. The selected data is limited to the discourse of six kids’ videos dealing with covid-19 found on YouTube. The theories followed in the analysis are Tarigan’s theory (2013) and Burke’s pentad (1969). The results revealed that the discourse of each video reflects a dramatic situations, including the pentad items; act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. It is also found that agency as a rhetorical device is highly used in the selected data and the most dominant device was personification. It is concluded that the use of the dramatic situations and rhetorical devices in such videos has a valuable role in making kids aware of what is meant by Covid-19 pandemic and persuaded why they have to follow the safety instructions, leaving schools and stay home.

Saudi EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners have difficulty in chosen appropriate strategies for learning vocabulary and memorization during their undergraduate studies. Saudi undergraduate learners have the problem in remembering words at a point of need such as writing and speaking. In search of solution to this problem in Saudi Arabia, this study aims to examine the memory strategies for vocabulary learning employed by Saudi undergraduate EFL learners in Saudi Arabia. Overall, 110 Saudi undergraduate learners participated in this study. The study employs quantitative approach using descriptive statistical analysis. This study used Oxford (2003) language learning strategies of memory strategies for vocabulary learning. The results revealed that the creating mental linkage (CML) is the common and the highly most used vocabulary learning strategy by Saudi undergraduate EFL learners in Saudi Arabia. Subsequently, reviewing well (RW) and applying images & sounds (AIS) learning strategies are the second and the third most highly used strategies among the students. The EA learning strategy is the least used among the undergraduate EFL learners. Further, the findings also indicated that the Saudi undergraduate EFL learners prefer CML strategy more than they use employing actions (EA) in their vocabulary learning and memorization. According to these results, CML and RW strategies were observed to be both at a high level of utilization, whereas AIS and EA categories were at the medium utilization level. Based on the results, high usage ranges from a mean of 4.0 or above, medium usage ranges from a mean of 2.5 to 3.9, and low usage ranges from a mean of 2.4 or lower. Therefore, CML and RW strategies appeared to be most appropriate choice for Saudi students in memorizing vocabularies. It is recommended that future study should focus on in-depth analysis of these two most used strategies to encompass the depth and breadth of the usage and memorization.

Involving English teachers in designing and developing curriculum leads to producing effective curriculum, therefore, efficient learning process of English. This exploratory study evaluated the English teachers’ involvement in designing curriculum in Saudi public schools. Also, it investigates how English teachers’ absence of the process of curriculum design impacts them and their learners. Then the study suggests the collaborative curriculum design method as an alternative. The sample consists of seven teachers and two supervisors. The data were collected and analyzed through qualitative research methods. The findings show that English teachers’ participation is restricted to evaluating the curriculum after implementing it. This narrow role limits the creativity and productivity of English teachers and their students

The global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused one of the most extensive school closures worldwide, sending over one billion students home away from their schools, teachers, and classmates. Governments opted for online education to ensure the continuity of learning. Teachers in Morocco have opted for different tech tools and platforms to design and deliver online classes. This study aims to assess the impact and effectiveness of online teaching during the COVID 19 outbreak among teachers in Morocco. Based on the theoretical framework Online Collaborative Learning (OCL), an online survey questionnaire is employed as a data collection instrument. A total of 421 Moroccan teachers from different regions all over Morocco took part in the study. This paper used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software to analyze the collected data and determine the impact and quality of online teaching during the Covid-19 national school closure in Morocco. The results showed that most of the teachers faced numerous technology, training, and socio-economic challenges that acted as barriers to the processes of online education. The findings obtained can be of use in making future decisions concerning the implementation of teaching and learning online programs in Morocco considering the teachers’ perspective.

The article focuses on the authors’ pedagogical experience of exploiting digital narratives in a foreign language education at a modern university (on the basis of National Technical University of Ukraine “KPI” named after Igor Sikorsky). The study aims to consider multimodality in terms of foreign language didactics. It was designed by the constructivism theory and narratology in terms of teaching a foreign language. The research exploited the set of theoretical methods: analyzing, summarizing, and interpreting scholarly sources on the issue under scrutiny; generalization and conceptualization of the authors’ pedagogical experience. Applying those methods in coherence logic enabled the effective study and interpretation of the concepts of “narrative” and “digital narrative” in their interrelations. In the study, the narrative is viewed as a sociocultural tool that provides students with deeper self-understanding, and complements the communicative system of foreign language acquisition with metacognition and values of life meaning. The digital narrative as a form of expression, empowered and determined by digital technologies incorporates multimodal communication and narrative as a cognitive unity. The authors have stated that multimodality, grounded on information technologies, is introducing entirely new semiotic resources into the communicative environment of foreign language learning. It is also generating innovative ways and forms of oral and written interaction. Multimodal learning activities illustrating the specifics of creating digital narratives by learners of English as a foreign language, are highlighted. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is unquestionably a rather fertile condition for active implementing digital technologies into foreign language education, and developing different multimodal learning activities in this area

This study highlights students’ and teachers’ perceptions on using Google Forms as a formative assessment tool in EFL classrooms. The study implemented a mixed methods approach where a questionnaire was administered to students and interviews were carried out with English teachers in public secondary schools in two cities in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire received 354 responses (32 males and 322 females) while in the structured interviews, 24 female English teachers provided their opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of integrating Google Forms into their classrooms. The purpose of this study is to explore students’ perceptions of online formative assessment via Google Forms in terms of perceived usefulness, perceived risk of cheating, and perceived self-efficacy. It also aims to analyze the positives and challenges faced by EFL teachers while using Google Forms as an online formative assessment tool. The results showed that both students and teachers believe that using Google Forms positively impacts students’ learning despite the risk of cheating and demonstrated several limitations with using Google Forms for teachers and students. However, English language teachers are recommended to engage all students in online formative assessment to monitor their progress over the course and design interventions to reduce cheating in online assessment. The present study helps increase the awareness of the positives and negatives of English online assessment in Saudi Arabia.

This paper aims to develop a methodology for forming communication skills (specifically phonetic skills) through a virtual learning environment involving online learning platforms, online tools, and mobile applications, which determines the relevance and timeliness of the study. The authors present their experience of effective use of modern online resources and mobile applications to develop phonetic and communication skills in first-year students studying German as the first and second foreign language at the Department of German Philology at Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University, Ukraine. According to the survey, modern digital tools and applications help students reveal interest and, more importantly, increase motivation in learning a foreign language. They enable students to keep in touch with their teachers, who provide them with feedback and support, creating the effect of social presence which is so vital in a distance learning environment. The significance of the research is to establish the background for the formation of students’ self-development and self-education skills, encourage the students to take responsibility for their learning process, and motivate their learning activities with the most effective tools and technologies that do not only complement traditional teaching methods, but also contribute to the learning process improvement and enhancement. Consequently, the research findings can apply to the development of communicative competence, which is the main goal in teaching any foreign language.

The work represents a new approach to the technology of blended learning. This new vision was developed during the period of online education in 2020-2021. The research shows relevance in the framework of developing high efficiency of professionally-oriented language education. Blended learning is an educational technology that has been theoretically developed in various countries over the past decades. Blended learning was and still is mostly understood as a combination of offline and online education as delivery methods; at present, such training involves a flexible combination of formats, in different proportions. The aim of the rese4arch is combining different types of delivery methods, pedagogical strategies, and tactics according to the needs of a particular student or a group of students. In Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), we provide teaching of both foreign and native professionally-oriented languages. In the situation of the COVID-19 Pandemic, we started to use new approaches to education. One of the ideas was to use a blended learning technique mixing two language disciplines. This approach turned out to improve the efficiency of the teaching process in unprecedented conditions due to the inclusion of all the skills and systems of languages. We developed general speech culture, intuitive linguistic flair, enlarged students’ active vocabulary, improved soft skills (flexible skills) of a non-linguistic type, which include critical thinking, teamwork, and creativity. The main task of developing and introducing this new approach was the provision of efficiency of teaching professionally-oriented language skills.

The current paper attempts to afford an evidence-based background on the prevalence, benefits, cons, challenges, and importance of online student assessment at higher educational level. This study is significant as it would assist teachers when applying online assessment. The COVID-19 pandemic compelled almost most universities and higher institutions to suddenly adopt online learning and assessment. In this spectrum, this research paper tries to answer the following question: to what extent the application of the appropriate online assessment is challenging in higher educational institutions? The central set hypothesis states that adopting the practical online assessment meets several challenges that hinder its application in higher educational institutions; however, they do not make its use impossible. To gain empirical data, an emailed questionnaire was sent to the sample. The sample of this research comprises 183 higher education teachers from Algeria. They belong to different faculties and departments. Their selection was based on cluster sampling techniques. The obtained results were treated using the statistical package for social sciences SPSS. The findings prove the existence of some hindrances that harden the application of the online assessment. Also, teachers reveal that they adopted several online assessing techniques and both formative and summative assessments. Ultimately, teachers recommend the organization of courses to improve their use of the online assessment in general. Besides, teachers highly approve of using anti-plagiarism detectors to ensure academic integrity and limit learners’ potential misconduct in online assessment.

The shift from in-person to remote learning has have led to crisis management. Teachers find it more challenging as content designing and presentation have to undergo drastic change. Though many face-to-face methodologies could be adapted in the online context, Yet, “one size fits all approach” cannot be standardized in remote learning setups. The critical challenge in this ‘new era’ is to make the learners motivated, productive, and responsible. The study aims to find the impact of four digital tools: Discussion Forums, Kahoot, Padlet, and FlipGrid in fostering 21st-century skills and identify the existing gaps between Remote Learning and instructional activities in the EFL context. The study adopts a quantitative approach. First, it tries to examine the utilization of the digital learning tools under Blackboard by the faculty at the Department of English at Prince Sattam University and find out the impact of digital tools in fostering 21st-century skills on the undergraduate students pursuing level six. From the results of the study, it is evident that digital learning tools empower learners. The study recommends significant changes in the pedagogies. Finally, the study suggests rubrics be taken into consideration while choosing digital tools to foster 21 st century skills.

The current study investigated the activities and practices used by three female EFL teachers during the coronavirus pandemic between March 2020 till February 2021. The study also explored the difficulties and obstacles faced by the three teachers during that period. To achieve these objectives, a qualitative approach utilizing a case study design was employed using three tools: teachers’ written reflections, content analysis of teachers’ posts on the social media, and a focus group meeting via Zoom. The significance of the study emerges from its objectives to contribute to EFL teachers’ professional development during the emergency cases. Results revealed that the three teachers were able to cope with the new situation by adopting new methods of content delivery and new forms of communication as well. These teachers used online technologies such as Facebook, YouTube, and Microsoft Teams to communicate with their students and the parents as well. However, some challenges emerged, including the financial situation of the families and its impact on students’ access to internet connection and family affordability. Under these conditions, teacher training programs are in demand for using appropriate technologies that engage the students and attract their attention.

COVID-19 pandemic forced the entire world community to reconsider its educational learning strategies. Modern Information and Communication Technologies have provided the mastery of writing skills by philology students during distance learning. Writing skills are acquired in writing texts of different genres: primary, written without the resource literature, and secondary, written by students based on primary sources. Interactive activities based on Internet resources enabled creating a virtual learning environment for mastering the second language written communication. This study analyzes various interactive activities on the Internet and suggests division into two groups: educational and controlling interactive activities. The study aims to define the effectiveness and methodological characteristics of the interactive activities to optimize the writing skills mastering during lockdowns. It presents the stages of text writing for users of the A2 language level. The paper gives examples of interactive activities based on communicative situations that teach to write a text at a sentence, paragraph, and text level. It also determines their goal, techniques, ways of control, and benefits of using such exercises for self-study of writing skills. The study concludes with recommendations of using communicative cases and activities to improve mastering written communication.

In the wake of the global pandemic – COVID-19, the transitioning of the ongoing education journey into Remote Learning poses challenges and evolving opportunities to thousands of instructors, educators, stakeholders, and learners. This unprecedented COVID-19 situation has mainly situated the teachers and learners into the uncomfortable position for not only having to continue teaching-learning online classes for the first time but also to do it without any notice or preparedness. Behind such backdrop, this paper attempts to explore the challenges and opportunities for adopting Remote Teaching in the time of COVID-19. To this end, this study devised a survey questionnaire for students of Shaqra University, Saudi Arabia, to have a ground reality of the situation and prospects of teaching-learning online. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The study result suggests that in response to the immediate impact of school closures, it is necessary to facilitate the continuity of education for all through remote learning mode, which is safe and suitable for the current world situation by ensuring the digital devices, internet infrastructure, the availability of the communication network to the peripheral users in rural interiors and teacher-students training for new survival digital skills. The study also reflected that the excellent benefits of learning technology and media apps help continue the wheel of education through impacting the learners’ motivation and immersion to learning. Moreover, this study will be contributing literature in shaping higher education in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era.

The integration of soft skills in training pre-service teachers ensures higher academic performance and provides them with better career opportunities. However, many university teachers pay insufficient attention to developing soft skills in higher education. The article aims to investigate the correlation between the soft skills included in professional teacher training and undergraduates’ viewpoint on soft skills development at university. The authors formulated three research questions: (a) How do English trainee teachers assess their soft skills? (b) How much attention, in students’ opinion, do teachers pay to developing soft skills? (c) Is there a gap between teachers’ work on developing students’ soft skills and trainee teachers’ expectations? To answer these questions, the researchers analized the empirical data received through a questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by 153 English trainee teachers studying at H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Ukraine. The respondents answered two close-ended questions regarding the level of soft skills they believe to possess and the amount of time devoted to soft skills development. The findings suggest that most students consider the level of their soft skills intermediate or high. Nevertheless, a significant number of the respondents still feel that teachers pay insufficient or hardly any attention to improving these skills. It is necessary to conduct further research to analyze university teachers’ viewpoint on improving students’ soft skills and organize the development of soft skills which would meet trainee teachers’ expectations.

The overall purpose of this paper is to explore the adverse effect of COVID-19 on the learning environment in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Considering that the impact of the coronavirus on education was abrupt, there was no contingency plan to mitigate the effect other than to shift to remote learning. The research addresses the question whether online/distance learning classes were effective. To deal with the research questions, the authors elicited teachers’ and students’ perceptions of regarding the challenges they faced amidst COVID-19 in learning via virtual mode- the only alternative e-learning strategy available at the time of social distancing. Hence it is important to mention that King Abdulaziz University (KAU) has been using e-learning/blended learning for more than a decade under the umbrella of the deanship of distance learning of KAU, however, in a different scenario. Data was collected from teachers and students through two questionnaires (adapted). The results reported that the majority of the participants had positive attitudes towards E-learning. It was also found that students were prepared to shift to online mode to avoid any academic loss.