Active Participation in Digital English Language Classes and Elements for Designing Pedagogical Strategies for Online Instruction During Covid-19

Abstract

Pedagogical strategies which promote active participation are useful tools that teachers can employ to improve learning. This study aims to investigate whether active participation makes a difference in the performance of language learners and to explore pedagogical strategies for coping with the challenges to active participation when learning in a digital learning environment amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The study group was composed of 100 students studying English online during the Spring semester of 2022. Roughly half of them (n=47) participated in classes real time while the other half (n=53) took them asynchronously by watching video recordings of the classes. The analysis of both groups’ test scores showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the students who were actively participating in the live classes via the platforms and those who instead received video classes. Moreover, three themes emerged that were associated with the active participation tasks: 1) interactivity 2) multimodality

3) teacher’s professional standards. Pedagogical strategies for encouraging active participation are discussed in terms of theoretical principles and a proposed model for incorporating such strategies when engaged in digital education. The study presents research limitations and suggests further exploration for the improvement of digital educational contexts for learning and teaching languages.