Foreign Language Study in the "New Normal"

Abstract

In the advent of "new normal" education, a term used to describe the notion of distance learning, Foreign Language (FL) classes faced a lot of changes in the pedagogy of FL education. To identify if these changes have affected the students' perceptions on their FL learning experiences, FL students were interviewed through autobiographies. Twenty four FL students were identified through snowball sampling and has reached data saturation. Through thematic analysis, the responses underwent open coding, axial coding, and selective coding where three themes were then identified: virtual classroom environment, teaching pedagogy, and drive and motivation which all round up to encapsulate to refer to both the FL teachers' management (in the virtual classroom, instruction, and interaction) and the FL students' self-management (self-regulation decisions, time flexibility, drive, and motivation). To ensure higher learning rates, there is a need to consider the FL teachers' virtual classroom management and the FL students' self-management.