TEACHER PERCEPTION OF ONLINE TEACHING APPROACHES DURING THE PANDEMIC COVID-19

ABSTRACT This study looks at the instructional methods utilised by English Language teachers in Malaysia during the Covid-19 outbreak. During the pandemic in 2020/2021, the participants had to learn, explore, and decide which digital tools to use remotely for teaching and learning. In May 2021, twenty English Language Teachers from various secondary schools in Malaysia participated in this study. The Movement Control Order (MCO) period was in effect when the study project began, so Google survey forms were chosen as the research tool. The Google forms were sent out via Telegram and WhatsApp, two popular online teacher support groups. Schools were forced to close in March 2020, and the time of Home-Based Teaching and Learning (PdPR) began with teachers conducting online classes from their homes. This study looks at the online technologies that the participants utilised and the obstacles they faced when teaching online. The study establishes a link between the various types of digital tools and the benefits of using these teaching and learning tools for both teachers and students; it also showed how the digital tool selection was influenced by either the teacher or the student or both. The study's findings revealed that most of the participants used comparable tactics and strategies in their online teaching, such as allowing students time and space to reply to lessons utilising the asynchronous method. According to the findings, participants faced problems such as a lack of internet access, failure of electronic and digital technologies, poor self-efficacy, and lack of support during their HBT&L period. The findings further showed that 80% of the participants used mobile applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram to connect, communicate and teach, as these tools were available to their students. The study’s acknowledgement of the fundamental premise of Malaysia’s status as a developing nation, with its lack of digital infrastructure, poor economic realities of its citizen and the unaffordability of data makes the selection of tools relevant in this 21st century. The study also provides a promising start for utilising these different online teaching tools using flipped, hybrid, asynchronous, or synchronous forms, which have many elements of progressivism and constructivism type teaching styles. When combined with in-person education, the findings could have considerable benefits for the learner and support heutagogy (learning self-management) when combined with in-person teaching