Building Learning Communities in Saudi EFL Online Classes

Abstract

The transition from on-campus to online classes during Covid-19 pandemic has emphasised the role of online learning. Therefore, teachers need to adjust their teaching strategies to help students interact in this new learning environment. One of the methods that help to engage students in online classes is building learning communities. The aim of the present study is to explore the various strategies that teachers can implement to build learning communities in Saudi EFL online classes and investigate students‟ perceptions of the use of these strategies. The researchers collected data in two stages. The first stage involved conducting interviews with 11 EFL teachers. The second stage involved a questionnaire that was based on the teachers‟ interview responses and was utilized to obtain the perception on teachers‟ strategies from 275 EFL students. The results indicate that EFL teachers implement various strategies that promote teacher-student interaction, student-student interaction, and student-content interaction. Moreover, the results show that EFL students have a positive attitude towards the implementation of these strategies in the context of Saudi EFL online classes. It is suggested that learning communities could be developed through the implementation of teaching strategies that promote classroom interaction.