Online foreign language learning: Measuring efficacy versus traditional classroom study

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic precipitated a mass transfer of educational activity to the online space in many countries. While advances in internet communication technologies have allowed many educational activities to continue throughout periods of closure of traditional classroom environments, the change necessitated a sizeable shift in terms of actual language pedagogy and learning strategies. Simply put, Foreign Language Acquisition (FLA) through online activities is different from traditional face-to-face learning (e.g., Chun, Kern, & Smith, 2016). However, while research can point to various advantages and disadvantages of online vs. face-to-face classroom environments for foreign language study, it is an open question whether the online study has the potential to replace traditional classrooms while achieving a similar or even greater level of proficiency gains. This paper presents a longitudinal case study of an adult learner progressing from an absolute beginner level to an intermediate level of proficiency (CEFR-level B1) through purely online (one hour) weekly instruction over the course of two years, and using learning records; it will elucidate the learner’s perceived differences between online and in-person language instruction. The results suggest that the online instruction yielded more opportunity for productive conversational use of the Target Language (TL), thus enabling the faster development of basic conversational competence compared to traditional classroom instruction.