Emergency remote teaching practices: discourse analysis of EFL writing communicative event

Abstract

Although emergency remote teaching (ERT) emerged as a trending research area during COVID-19, teamwork emergency remote teaching practices (ERTPs) remained an untouched topic in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) writing. Teaching practices in various contexts are shaped by a communicative event such as face-to-face, online, or ERT. There is a significant need for using classroom discourse to probe such writing events. Accordingly, this context-based study evaluates the teamwork ERTPs in EFL writing communicative event. To achieve this task, it develops a conceptual framework that integrates discourse of ethnography with pedagogical technology: an ethnography of settings, participants, ends, acts, keys, instruments, norms, and genres (SPEAKING), with technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK). Eleven sessions were collected from the recorded emergency remote sessions, chatroom, online session report, and the course portfolio in the preparatory year (PY) of Najran University, Saudi Arabia. The analysis revealed that EFL writing class is a hybrid communicative event in which the teaching team gradually recouped their traditional teaching practices. The team pushed their students to use written discourse. Technical practices show that because of cultural norms the participants did not use the camera. Content practices include adapting the teaching materials in the form of a PDF file to serve the interests of physical distancing. Pedagogical practices involve poor attendance, planning practices, and archival practices. The study concludes that a teaching team is an effective strategy during crises. The study recommends further investigation of macro teaching practices beyond classroom boundaries. Students can improve their spelling and writing issues using chatrooms, PowerPoint presentations, and Google forms. ERT can be flexible in terms of selecting materials that best serve the learning outcomes. A student’s writing e-portfolio can be used as an alternative assessment tool in EFL virtual writing courses. Flipped classroom discourse and digital discourse are potential areas for investigating ERTPs.