Online Language Teaching during COVID-19: What Has and Hasn't Worked?
Watch on YouTube ↗Summary
This presentation reports on a qualitative study of six English teachers in Hong Kong — three primary and three secondary — examining their online language teaching practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies key challenges across technology, pedagogy, psychology, and socioeconomics, alongside several promising possibilities that emerged from the shift to remote instruction.
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic forced schools worldwide into remote instruction almost overnight. UNESCO estimated that school closures affected as many as 72% of the global student population — a shift that exposed deep structural inequalities and tested the pedagogical flexibility of teachers at every level.
Early research identified four broad categories of problems arising from emergency remote teaching: technology-related issues (device access, connectivity), staff preparation and readiness, learning and teaching challenges (adapting pedagogy, increased workload, assessment integrity), and psychological difficulties (motivation, anxiety, uncertainty). At the same time, the transition created new possibilities — more flexible assessment formats, on-demand asynchronous content, and improved digital infrastructure.
Despite growing literature on the global picture, empirical evidence specific to the Hong Kong context remained limited. This study was motivated by a desire to fill that gap and offer implications for teacher education and educational technology design.
Research Questions
- What were the online language teaching practices during the COVID-19 pandemic among English teachers in Hong Kong?
- What were the challenges and possibilities of online language teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Methodology
Six in-service English teachers were recruited from six different schools in Hong Kong — three primary school teachers (P1, P2, P3) and three secondary school teachers (S1, S2, S3). All participants were in their 20s, reflecting a relatively high level of digital literacy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore their teaching practices and lived experiences during the pandemic.
Participants
| ID | School Level | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| P1 | Primary | Used Microsoft Teams; had to purchase personal webcam and microphone for online teaching; faced challenges converting paper-based materials to digital formats |
| P2 | Primary | Higher comfort with a wider range of digital tools for learning and teaching |
| P3 | Primary | Participants from primary schools did not make assignments compulsory due to students' limited device access |
| S1 | Secondary | Self-produced instructional videos voluntarily; provided with iPad and Apple Pencil by school |
| S2 | Secondary | Used Google Meet for easier integration with Google Classroom; high variety of digital tool use |
| S3 | Secondary | Served on school's e-learning strategy team; conducted live-time assessments over Zoom; explored creative assessment alternatives |
Hong Kong Context
Hong Kong schools entered lockdown in February 2020 following the first COVID-19 wave, with partial reopening in May 2020. Subsequent waves led to repeated school closures, meaning many teachers cycled between asynchronous-only and hybrid instruction multiple times. Unlike many cities, Hong Kong never implemented a full citywide lockdown, so parents continued working while children attended school remotely — a factor that significantly affected younger learners' access to synchronous lessons and assignment completion.
Findings: Teaching Practices
Lesson Delivery
All six teachers initially adopted asynchronous delivery at the start of the pandemic, relying on publisher-produced videos and YouTube content. Some schools required teachers to self-produce weekly instructional videos. As the situation stabilized and teachers and students adjusted, delivery shifted toward synchronous lessons — eventually reverting to the original face-to-face timetable for online instruction.
Video Conferencing Tools
Zoom was the dominant platform across participants. P1 used Microsoft Teams to align with her school's existing Microsoft ecosystem. S2 preferred Google Meet for its direct integration with Google Classroom. Tool choice was not always pedagogically driven — availability, school policy, and regional constraints (e.g., Google services being blocked in mainland China for students studying there) all shaped platform decisions.
Digital Learning Tools
Participants used a wide variety of digital tools, with Google Classroom and Nearpod appearing most commonly. Notable variation emerged in digital fluency: P2 and S2 demonstrated comfort with a broader range of platforms and used them more purposefully. A recurring concern was that teachers sometimes adopted tools without clear pedagogical rationale — using something because "everyone else is using it" or because it seemed fun, rather than because it demonstrably improved learning.
Assignments and Assessment
Secondary school teachers made assignments compulsory; primary school teachers did not, citing students' limited device access and dependence on parental support. Assessment shifted to Google Forms and, in S3's case, live-time Zoom-based tests — raising questions about academic integrity when students are unmonitored at home. The shift to digital assessment also required rethinking what valid assessment of language skills looks like outside a paper-and-pen context.
Findings: Challenges & Possibilities
- Teachers lacked equipment (webcams, microphones) and had to self-fund purchases
- Students without devices or home internet could not participate in synchronous lessons
- Converting paper-based materials to digital formats added significant workload
- Older staff struggled more with digital transitions
- E-learning strategies varied widely across schools with no unified approach
- Professional development was reactive rather than planned
- Pedagogies designed for face-to-face contexts didn't transfer directly to remote settings
- Student engagement and monitoring became significantly harder
- Assessment integrity was difficult to maintain without physical supervision
- Increased workload for teachers: digital materials, administration, chasing homework
- ~10% of Hong Kong students lacked their own device (2018–2019 data)
- 28% of low-income families had no home broadband access
- Cramped living conditions in Hong Kong made quiet study spaces rare
- Parents with low digital literacy could not support younger learners
- Student motivation and self-discipline declined significantly, especially in secondary school
- Homework submission rates dropped; teachers found it difficult to follow up
- Anxiety and negative emotions were widespread among teachers, students, and parents
- More varied, creative assessment formats (video projects, collaborative writing tasks)
- On-demand asynchronous learning increased access flexibility
- All students being online simultaneously enabled new forms of collaborative work
- Digital tool adoption led to improved school infrastructure for future use
Conclusion
Online language teaching practices during COVID-19 varied substantially across school levels and individual teachers. Primary and secondary contexts had meaningfully different challenges — particularly around assignment expectations, device access, and parental support. Challenges were largely consistent with what broader international research had identified, though this study contributes Hong Kong-specific empirical evidence, including data on the city's particular housing constraints and multi-wave pandemic timeline.
The findings raise important questions for teacher education: How do we prepare teachers to adapt pedagogy — not just tools — for remote contexts? And how do we ensure digital tool adoption is driven by learning goals rather than novelty or peer pressure?
Directions for Future Research
- Longitudinal effects of pandemic-era teaching on student language proficiency
- The relationship between teacher digital fluency and student learning outcomes in remote settings
- Effective professional development models for emergency remote teaching readiness
- How socioeconomic factors mediate the impact of online learning on language acquisition