The impact of COVID-19 on the design of online language teaching through Zoom

Abstract

Since 2020, because of the Covid 19 pandemic, university education has been converted to a flipped classroom format, integrating asynchronous and synchronous forms. The change in the concept of learning required teachers to construct new lessons’ designs. Rethinking the didactic approach led us to choose social constructivism as a pedagogical method. The main points of social constructivism used in this article are: learning is learner-centered process; design of learning scenario is built to develop problem-solving, decision-making and innovation capabilities of students; interaction and collaboration play very important role in the learning process; knowledge is coconstructed during interaction with other people. We concluded that communicating about health care during a time of pandemic is a necessary sociocultural competence. Using communicative approaches (task-based and content and language integrated), a structured task was designed. The students worked synchronously on the Zoom platform on the topic “How to survive during pandemic Covid19?” They were offered to complete tasks that involved in-depth vocabulary study and developed skills of reception, production, interaction and mediation. Then, using Zoom’ breakout rooms function, the students were able to practice interviewing about the symptoms of diseases, simulating a dialogue with a doctor. Having learnt the vocabulary necessary for effective communication, at the next stage the students independently wrote a text on a given topic, as suggested by the homework assignment. This task fully realized the possibilities of the creative task to construct meaning. The results showed that using Zoom to develop sociocultural competencies for an online class offers students the needed opportunities for successful vocabulary acquisition.