The Challenges Encountered by EFL Students in Online Academic Listening Class during The COVID-19 Pandemic: Students' Perceptions

Abstract

In this era of COVID-19, many major sectors in various fields have been affected by the rules and policies implemented during this pandemic. In the field of education, as a measure to prevent the spread of the virus, the policy of teaching and learning has changed from offline to online classes. In online classes, students need a stable internet connection and adequate devices. Therefore, some students may have difficulty regarding this issue. This mixed-methods study aimed to investigate the challenges encountered by EFL students in online Academic Listening classes and how they overcome the challenges they encounter. A combination of open and closed questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 42 students in the Academic Listening class in Semester 1 of the 2021/2022 Academic Year. The study found seven types of challenges encountered by EFL students in online Academic Listening classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the challenges coming from students, the listening materials, the speaker, learning environment, technical issues, aspects of language, and student-teacher interaction. There were several strategies that students used to overcome the difficulties they encountered, namely drinking a cup of coffee before class, praying, giving self-reward, practicing note-taking, writing and learning the new vocabulary, making notes, finding a comfortable place for listening, finding an area that had a good internet connection, having back-up answers, consulting with the teacher, repeating playing the recordings, and focusing on the word before and after unfamiliar idioms.