Adaptation to emergency remote teaching: an ESOL course for older Chinese learners

ABSTRACT

This study examines the adaptation of an ESOL course for older Chinese migrant learners to Emergency Response Teaching mode as a result of the government-imposed restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19. Through interviews and the analysis of learner diaries, we consider the experience of the school manager and teachers, and the strategies used by the learners, in relation to online delivery, with a particular focus on the measures taken to cater for a group of third-age learners with minimal previous language learning experience. Our analysis highlights the importance of collaborative decision making, team teaching, and a didactic approach that is sensitive to learners’ cultural backgrounds and that provides adequate L1 (i.e. first language) support. From a curriculum perspective, we discuss the importance of including content that is responsive to the evolving emergency context, and which strengthens learners’ ability (and inclination) to use the language-rich context of the public sphere for learning purposes. We also discuss the relative challenge of shifting grammar and vocabulary focused lessons to online delivery. Learners appeared to employ more frequently memory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies and we discuss this in relation to their current emergency learning context and previous educational background.

KEYWORDS:

• Third-age language learners
• New Zealand
• emergency remote teaching
• distance education
• Covid-19
• learning strategies
• Chinese learners

1. Introduction

Upon the move to Alert Level 4 on 25 March 2020 due to community transmission of Covid-19, New Zealand entered a nationwide lockdown. Educational institutions faced the unprecedented challenge of transitioning to distance teaching with minimal preparation, and often with no previous experience of emergency teaching. Teachers and students had to adapt to the new delivery mode, while simultaneously coping with disrupted lifestyles, existential concerns, and social tensions. Among those affected were students of English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) (primarily first-generation migrants) at private educational institutions. Their limited level of English and few social connections in the community placed them in a potentially more vulnerable position during the lockdown period, and it was thus particularly important that this group maintain their engagement with the language learning course due to the opportunities for interaction and information exchange that this provided.

New Zealand’s borders were closed throughout most of 2020, causing a steep decline in international student numbers, and resident migrant ESOL learners contributed to ensuring some private language institutions could continue to operate. Migrant learners arrive on a range of visa categories. In 2019/20, the second most common residence visa was for family members (Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment [MBIE], 2020). This category includes the parents’ residence visa, which requires sponsorship by the applicant’s children (New Zealand citizens or residents), and the proportion of parent visa recipients from the People’s Republic of China has been much higher than other nationalities (Ran & Liu, 2020).

Few older Chinese migrants experienced English learning before migrating to New Zealand as the educational opportunities of many migrants of this age group were affected by the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), a period of upheaval, destruction and loss of life and, for the youth, limited educational opportunities (see Pye, 1986). This generation of youth is referred to as the ‘lost generation’ in China (You, 2012), and this would include most Chinese immigrants aged over 55. During this period English language learning was not possible. While English gradually returned to the curriculum from 1977 onwards, it was taught in a very teacher-centred approach that favoured rote-learning (Cheng, 2010).

For older migrant ESOL learners, the motivation to learn a foreign language is mostly related to their communication needs in the host country, and personal learning targets usually relate to being able to communicate appropriately for a range of everyday activities such as shopping, public transport, banking and medical consultations. A lack of language skills can hinder social integration, negatively affect wellbeing, and impede access to social services particularly important for older immigrants (Pot et al., 2018; Treas & Mazumdar, 2002).

This study examines the process of adjustment to distance teaching in the context of a national emergency (i.e. Emergency Remote Teaching or ERT) by a private English language school that caters for older Chinese learners, focusing on the perspectives of the school manager, teachers, and this particular learner group. We provide specific pedagogical implications derived from our findings in the conclusion.

The following research questions guided our empirical study:

1. ). How did the language school adapt to the ERT mode?

2. ). How did the teachers adapt their delivery to cater for the students’ specific profile?

3. ). What strategies did this group of learners employ when adapting to learning English online?

2. Background

2.1. Distance language teaching during Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT)

Distance language education employs an ever-increasing range of technology, hardware, software and applications, in course delivery. The choice of technology can naturally favour a particular approach to teaching and learning, facilitating for instance, out-of-class interaction (e.g. Buckingham & Alpaslan, 2017; Tudini, 2003), collaborative learning (e.g. Aydın & Yıldız, 2014; Elola, 2010; Felix, 2002; Lamy & Hassan, 2003) or attention to form (e.g. Ducate & Lomicka, 2009).

The design and implementation of distance language education are context sensitive, influenced by the pedagogical beliefs of teachers and students, learning priorities, institutional constraints, as well as sociocultural factors (White, 2006). Online language teaching should not simply be a transfer of material designed for face-to-face (F2F) teaching to an online delivery mode; rather it requires a reorientation of the curriculum. For instance, the communication mode between teachers and students (i.e. written or spoken), the channel through with it occurs (i.e. the software used), the manner of communication (synchronous/asynchronous), the participants, and the initiator, need to be re-negotiated in online teaching, particularly where the shift is sudden, as in the case of ERT. Teachers need to develop their awareness of forms of online communication that stimulate learners’ engagement (Gacs et al., 2020; Nørgård, 2021; White, 2003).

Unlike traditional distance teaching which can be expected to offer custom-made teaching materials and judiciously selected software to facilitate contact between teachers and students, ERT typically constitutes an unanticipated, sudden shift to online delivery, involving minimal preparation of the curriculum, and delivered by teachers who may be without specific training or previous experience in this delivery mode, and who may have limited access to appropriate technology (Hodges et al., 2020; Johnson et al., 2020). As a result of the uncertainties inherent in an emergency context, teachers need to continuously adapt their teaching to the evolving circumstances, and to the specific needs of their learners who will experience the altered conditions in dissimilar ways (Johnson et al., 2020), and who ultimately did not choose to undertake a programme of study online (Stewart & Lowenthal, 2021). Due to its unanticipated nature, the emergency curriculum may not facilitate the type of interconnectivity between students that would have been possible in the F2F delivery mode. This can contribute to the students’ sense of isolation (particularly when students are new to the programme), which is compounded by broader civic restrictions on movement and socialising in the emergency context (Stewart & Lowenthal, 2021). Finally, unlike regular distance education, ERT still aims to return to the normal F2F teaching mode once public alert levels permit; decisions taken regarding delivery or curriculum content are thus usually ad hoc interim measures and not necessarily pedagogically robust or sustainable (Johnson et al., 2020).

2.2. Older language learners

The term ‘older learners’ places an emphasis on the aspect of age in a learner’s identity. This age group may begin around 60 (or somewhat earlier at 50) and may extend to around 70 or 80, depending on the approach taken and the context of the study (see Pfenninger & Singleton, 2019, pp. 420–421).

It is widely believed that the language learning ability of ageing people declines, with significant changes in the cognitive areas, including, for instance, slower processing speed and the deterioration of working memory capacity (see discussions in Pfenninger & Singleton, 2019,; Singleton, 2018). In addition, age-related defeatism can affect older language learners’ engagement with further education. Third-age learners often lack confidence in their ability to learn another language, and believe that the age-related changes will adversely impact their L2 (i.e. second language) learning progress (Andrew, 2012; Ramírez Gómez, 2016). Nonetheless, there is evidence that older adult language learners can be successful (Herschensohn, 2007; Singleton & Ryan, 2004), as illustrated by learners aged >50 in Kuklewicz and King (2018).

In the L2 classroom, older learners’ needs and learning progress often differ from younger learners and they may require additional support in some areas. For instance, Brändle (1986) found that this group of learners had problems in auditory imitation, memorising, and in responding, and comprehension. Sɫowik (2017) noted the greater challenges faced by older adult learners in decoding aural input. However, older adult students may also outperform younger learners in some aspects. For instance, they have been found to effectively employ a range of reading strategies and learn grammar more efficiently (Brändle, 1986), and use a wider range of strategies when learning vocabulary (Johnstone, 2002).

The degree of intra-group variation among older learners is usually considerable on account of differences in accumulated life experience, previous education, lifestyle, and engagement in intellectually stimulating pursuits, and these will influence learners’ success with formal learning in later life (Bialystok & Hakuta, 1999; Carliner, 2000; Pfenninger & Singleton, 2019; Pot et al., 2018).

Arxer et al. (2017) and Mackey and Sachs (2012) point to the paucity of research on older L2 learners in their own right, as the focus of research on language learning is skewed towards younger populations (Andringa & Godfroid, 2020). As Arxer et al. (2017) discern, when these are participants in studies, the focus is often on age-related pathological complications or language loss (L1 or L2). Little is known about learner experiences and learning outcomes in relation to topics usually studied with younger learners, such as the relationship between forms of instruction and language acquisition, motivation, and language learning strategies. For instance, empirical research has shown that working memory is affected by age (e.g. Mackey & Sachs, 2012), a factor that detracts from the effectiveness of teaching approaches that require declarative learning; as a result, Cox (2015) suggests that a learner-centred (e.g. task-based) communicative approach to language teaching may be more appropriate for older learners, but empirical research to inform this is lacking.

While the present study is unable to respond specifically to the more interventionist research suggestions proposed in Cox (2019) and Pfenninger and Singleton (2019), due to the logistical difficulties of planning and conducting research in the context of a national emergency and lockdown, we have nevertheless endeavoured to respond to Cox’s (2019) call to document and evaluate current practices with older learners.

2.3. Language learning strategies

Research on second language acquisition has established that the use of learning strategies can significantly affect learning outcomes, although the extent to which they are used varies according to the learner’s proficiency level and their individual characteristics such as, previous language learning experience, cultural heritage and age (e.g. Hurd, 2000; Uztosun, 2014; Wong & Nunan, 2011; Zhang & Xiao, 2006; Zhong, 2015). As actions affecting the storage, retention, recall and use of language (Cohen, 1998), learning strategies have been defined by Oxford (1990, p. 1) as ‘steps taken by students to enhance their own learning’ and by Wenden (1991, p. 18) as “mental steps or operations that learners use to learn a new language and to regulate their efforts to do so.”

Oxford’s (1990) strategy taxonomy comprises two overarching categories: direct strategies, which require mental processing of the target language (comprising memory, cognitive and compensation strategies); and indirect strategies, which function to support and manage language learning (comprising metacognitive, affective, and social strategies). Oxford (2016) later revised this framework and renamed certain strategies, but this framework was not clearly elaborated and our study has thus employed her original taxonomy.

3. The study

We investigated the ERT and learning adaptation process of an ESOL course for older Chinese migrant learners¹ by employing three data sources: questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and weekly diaries. Data collection was undertaken online using Zoom and WeChat by the first author due to restrictions to personal mobility and social contact during this period. WeChat played a vital role in this study as it is a well-known multi-purpose phone application widely used by Chinese of all ages in daily life. The main language of fieldwork with teachers and learners was Mandarin Chinese (their first language), although some code-switching between English and Chinese was used with the teachers, and English was used with the school manager. The use of participants’ first language enabled them to draw on their full linguistic and affective repertoire (Rolland et al., 2020).

The teaching weeks of the ESOL course ran between 10 February and 4 June 2020. Data collection, delayed until the receipt of Ethics approval, occurred between 3 May and 2 June (6 weeks), but also inquired retrospectively into the initial period.

Questionnaires were used to compile background information on learners and teachers. Question items inquired into demographic information, prior language learning (or teaching) experience, learning objectives (for students) and prior experience with distance learning (or teaching). The questionnaires were completed by teachers and learners on WeChat prior to the interviews.

Semi-structured interviews with the school manager, teachers and learners constituted the main data source of this study. The interview focus differed according to participant group. Thus, with the school manager the interview focused on the steps of the adaptation of ERT for this ESOL course in the Coronavirus quarantine from the organisational perspective (Research Question 1). With teachers, the interviews focused on the adaptation of the curriculum to ERT, and the logistical steps involved in ensuring learners could cope with the change (Research Question 2). With learners, interviews focused on their account of how they adapted to learning online, the difficulties they encountered, and the measures they took to deal with these (Research Question 3).

The final data collection method, learner diaries, was used as a supplementary source of information on learners’ adaptation to the ERT curriculum. This method allowed us insight into the thoughts, emotions, and actions taken by learners on a daily basis, captured in situ or with a minimal delay between experiencing and recording the event or emotion (Krishnamurty, 2008; Rolland et al., 2020; Rose, 2020). They also provided additional information about the weekly curriculum content (i.e. the skill work, grammar or vocabulary topics) from the respective learner’s perspective.

3.1. Participants

The three groups of participants in this study, the school manager, teachers and English language learners, were recruited from a private language institute located in East Auckland (New Zealand), a district that is home to a substantial proportion of Auckland’s Asian population (14.8%, according to Auckland Council, 2020). The courses run by the school loosely followed the Intensive Literacy Numeracy (ILN) Targeted ESOL Expected Outcomes Framework provided by New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Commission, as a form of quality control of the standards of ESOL education providers. The framework has different achievement levels (from 0–2), and learners were expected to attempt a formal assessment at the end of the semester.

The school manager was a native English speaker, with over 20 years’ experience in school management, and who had held this position at the school for over 2 years at the time of the study. The two course teachers, Carrie (early thirties) and Dylan (late twenties),² both female and ethnically Chinese, held postgraduate qualifications in English language and pedagogy, and were experienced language teachers, although they did not possess prior training in online language teaching. Dylan had very limited previous experience, having conducted a short series of reading lessons online to young English learners in China in 2017.

The learners comprised five Chinese migrants: Eileen (f), Yan (f), Du (f), Tai (f), and Gang (m). All were aged >60 (Du was >70) and had lived in New Zealand for several years with a parents’ residence visa. Four had post-secondary educational qualifications, but only one (Gang) had some previous (basic level) experience learning English. The learners described their main learning objective as the desire to learn sufficient English for daily life to enable them to live independently. They had enrolled in the ESOL course, and had become familiar with their peers and teachers in the five weeks together in a F2F classroom before the Alert Level 4 lockdown (on 25 March).

3.2. Data analysis

The interviews and the learners’ diary entries were analysed following the guidelines in Braun et al. (2019). To ensure the reliability of the coding process, a second coder (a native Mandarin Chinese speaker, PhD student in Applied Linguistics) was invited to code a randomly selected 20% sample of the data. The two coders reached agreement at 89.5% on the main themes and subthemes. In most cases, a compromised solution was reached through discussion between the two authors and the second coder. However, the second coder also provided particular insights to the data, such as the addition of the theme ‘teachers’ attitudes’, which the first author had previously not coded due to the modest amount of material corresponding to this.

4. Findings

We begin with a consideration of logistical decisions taken by the school manager; this is followed by an account of how the teachers adapted their teaching and assessment to online delivery with consideration of age-related and cultural factors relevant to this learner group. Finally, we explore the learning strategies that this group of learners employed in the process of adapting to ERT during this period.

4.1. Leading the transition to ERT

In compliance with Alert Level 4 requirements, school buildings closed on 25 March, and learners were required to stay at home. Most (47 out of 49) continued with their English course by using a personal electronic device (computers, tablets, or smartphones). The few learners who did not own such a device were able borrow a laptop from the school.

At an emergency meeting with teaching staff on 23 March, the manager took the decision to shift to online course delivery beginning Monday 30 March, and to follow an ERT plan, which comprised changes in the delivery mode and the use of technology, and the physical location of the teacher and learners during the course, and an adaptation of the curriculum for all courses. The ERT curriculum involved changes in the class size, the hours of tuition per day, and course content and assessment.

The decision was taken to split all classes into two or three smaller classes of 8–10 students (maximum), as according to the manager, ‘at a ratio of one [teacher] to eight or 10 students, they probably get more individual attention from the teacher.’ The lesson duration was considerably shortened from 5 hours to 90 minutes, twice a week, and this contributed to ensuring that different courses at the same level progressed at a similar pace, so that the same online lesson could be delivered by the same teachers to different classes at the same level.

The curriculum adaptations remained within the expectations of the previously mentioned ILN framework for ESOL, but the proportion of the material dedicated to vocabulary increased, concomitant with a reduction in grammar content. This decision was based on the previous online teaching experience of one member of the teaching staff that had a strong focus on receptive skills with an emphasis on vocabulary. More importantly, additional content related to Covid-19 was added to the existing topic in the curriculum ‘See a doctor’. The teachers introduced the symptoms of the Coronavirus as new vocabulary, and integrated these items into basic sentence structures (already familiar to the learners, such as the simple present and simple past tenses), with the objective of ensuring that learners could describe these symptoms to a health professional if necessary.

According to the manager, the selection of the applications Zoom and WeChat for course delivery was due to their suitability for the learning conditions and the characteristics of this learner group. The limited array of functionalities with Zoom was considered advantageous with a learner group without prior online learning experience. The chat group on WeChat became the virtual room for learners and the teacher to communicate, and to submit and return written exercises.

Staff meetings (held on Zoom) increased from once a week to twice a day, before the class in the morning, then after the class in the afternoon. According to the manager, the purpose of this daily contact was to create a forum for a regular exchange of updates on teaching and the learners’ progress, and collectively to troubleshoot problems that emerged while adapting to the online delivery mode.

4.2. Teachers’ perspectives

Teachers had five days (25–29 March) to prepare the adapted online lessons and to familiarise themselves with the technical devices and applications used for online delivery. We identified three phases to the teachers’ work: ERT preparation, online course delivery, homework exercises and the assessment.

4.2.1. Preparation of ERT

In view of the older learners’ unfamiliarity with online learning and Zoom, two teachers created a detailed and illustrated instruction sheet (with screenshots and instructions in Chinese) to guide learners in accessing the online meetings. Separate instruction sheets were created for different operating systems (Apple and Android) and different devices (laptops, tablets and smartphones). The instruction sheet was distributed to the WeChat groups of each class before ERT began.

The first week of each class was designated a trial week for the new procedures. Two teachers attended each class on Zoom; one was the regular teacher, the second offered technical support to both learners and the teacher if needed, with minimal interruption to the lesson. For example, the support teacher guided learners in adjusting the volume when speaking, or even took over the class if a technical issue prevented the regular teacher from continuing. According to the teachers, most learners were successful in entering the online class on their first attempt, and others required minor assistance. The test class was planned with relatively little language teaching content in order to focus on the online classroom logistics and cohort building. The teachers believed that these arrangements (i.e. the instruction sheet, the team teaching, and the focus on online learning logistics) laid a solid foundation for the subsequent course delivery.

4.2.2. Online delivery

The reduced class size allowed teachers to provide individual attention during the lesson. Issues sometimes arose around online turn-taking and awareness of background noise disturbing the lesson. In addition to the learners’ own home context, disruptive noise also came from students’ private repetitions after the teacher’s modelling of language. The move by Dylan to mute some students was interpreted as disrespectful towards elders (as explained later by students). This matter was discussed in the daily school meeting, and subsequently all teachers explained the function of mute and the teacher’s need to employ it in their class.

With respect to presenting language while using Zoom, teachers found it difficult to present grammar, but found vocabulary (including orthography and pronunciation) easier. Due to the considerable differences between Chinese and English grammar, and learners’ marginal prior language learning experience, learners’ needs were complex. Teachers found it hard to prepare in advance adequate presentation and practice materials to be presented through the screen sharing function on Zoom. In responding to the students’ queries, teachers would need to shift from a PowerPoint slide to a Word document to type in examples or explanations, but it was difficult for learners to follow the lesson when the teacher shifted between applications. It was apparent that F2F classroom-based grammar instruction could not easily be transferred to Zoom online teaching and additional planning and materials preparation would be necessary. Based on this experience, the teachers recommended a stronger focus on vocabulary in the early weeks of the ERT curriculum.

With regard to the balance between input and output-oriented lesson segments, this learner group preferred a teacher-centred approach with a strong focus on receiving input. This preferred form of instruction, which reflected the form of education that these learners would have experienced in their youth, also extended to class materials for home study. A preferred type of material was, for instance, a bilingual vocabulary glossary sheet, or sentence completion tasks for which the answer key was provided. It was important for students to be guided towards the correct answer and to receive L1 support. Teacher Dylan described how she positioned herself as a ‘helper’ of ‘uncles and aunts’, usually favouring an indirect approach to correction, as it was culturally important that these individuals maintain confidence in their ability and in their identity as knowledgeable seniors in front of their peers and the considerably younger teacher.

4.2.3. Homework and the final assessment

An online platform was used for out-of-class activities and the final assessment. Homework exercises became an important course component in ERT. The, often spontaneous, practice opportunities in F2F classes were less likely to occur in the online Zoom mode, so this component needed to be adapted to homework practice exercises, which included both oral and written components. Teachers sent a task sheet with different exercise types (e.g. multiple choice, gap fill, form manipulation, etc.) to the WeChat learner group, and each learner uploaded the completed written exercise and the vocal production task (an audio file) to the group.

As the group had access to the uploaded files, learners could read and listen to one another’s work. This open display of individual students’ ability caused unforeseen anxiety amongst many learners, and led to learners sending the files of written work privately to the teacher for correction before uploading the corrected version to the group. For the same reason, learners preferred to upload recordings (rather than create a voice message) to the group, as this allowed them to first create multiple practice recordings, an option that was not possible with the voice message texts. Thus learners’ concerns about losing face contributed to their investing additional effort in the tasks.

The final test was administered online through the platform ‘Kaoshiyun’,³ which delivered to each learner the tasks that had been previously uploaded to the platform by the teachers (multiple choice exercises, sentence translation exercises, listening and reading comprehension questions). It allowed test takers one attempt and a limited time to complete the test on one device, using the link generated from the website. The speaking test was conducted via Zoom and involved individual 15-minute conversations with teachers in English and an exercise in reading aloud. All students but one passed the test, and teachers were confident that the online mode was the equivalent of the previously conducted in-class assessment.

4.3. Learners’ adaptation to ERT

In this section we examine the strategies used by learners in adapting to the online ERT curriculum, with information drawn from interviews and the learners’ diary entries. In the interviews, learners were asked about how they learnt vocabulary, grammar and the four skills during ERT (i.e. reading, writing, listening, speaking), the difficulties they experienced and the measures they undertook as a result. Learners were asked to consult their diaries for examples of points they discussed (where possible), and the interviewer also drew on her own knowledge of diary content during each interview where appropriate.

All learners mentioned actions that exemplify memory and cognitive strategies. These actions involved reviewing new language taught online with the objective of memorising information on the teachers’ PowerPoint slides and other materials. Two learners explained that they would repeatedly read and recite words from the daily lesson, and one learner mentioned using physical actions to compensate for their perceived decreased memory capacity.

After each class, the students used the handout with exercises and relied on cognitive strategies to complete the tasks. They described their approach as formulating an understanding of the language focus for the lesson, and then applying this understanding when completing the handout.

Learners also gave examples of their use of cognitive strategies when applying their knowledge of class material whilst operating in the local community during lockdown. This was specifically the case for the in-class content relating to Covid-19. All students mentioned an example related to their ability to deduce the main message of information in the public sphere due to their familiarity with vocabulary from the class. This is illustrated by Eileen in Excerpt 1.

Interview Excerpt 1: [Learner] Eileen

For example, in the news, he talks about some symptoms of the new coronavirus like fever and cough, and I can basically understand it. If the teacher didn’t teach them specifically, I definitely wouldn’t know.

The inclusion of Covid-19 as a topic in the curriculum helped learners benefit linguistically from the public information in their environment. Most learners mentioned examples of their efforts to understand the meaning of public signage related to the pandemic in their community and to use these examples as learning material. That is, they sought opportunities for learning out-of-class using authentic materials where the link to in-class material was apparent. Their examples displayed a combination of metacognitive strategies (seeking practice opportunities), cognitive strategies (getting the idea through deductive reasoning), and compensation strategies (guessing intelligently using visual and contextual clues). This process is illustrated in Excerpt 2 by Du, and Figure 1 displays examples of the public signage (present in every commercial centre during this period) that she (and other learners) referred to in the interview or their learner diary. Further, the online learning experience encouraged learners to explore further the resources on the Internet that could benefit their learning, and three learners mentioned the initiative they took to find extra materials for self-study.

Figure 1. Public signage.

Interview Excerpt 2: [Learner] Du

During the lockdown, I was sometimes conscious of looking at some signs. For example, his shop was closed. What did the notice he posted mean? Although I couldn’t understand all the words, there were a few words in it I could follow and I guessed the rest. Also, pictures were used to explain the meaning, such as ‘2 meters between two people’, which means to keep a distance of two meters. Then I went to other places and I knew the words on signs.

Finally, with regard to affective strategies, some learners considered the lockdown as an opportunity to focus on their learning, and others found that the routine of learning English every day contributed to easing their anxiety with regard to the response to Covid-19 in their community. Tai described how she was able to shift her focus from the unfolding events in the news to her daily learning tasks.

Learners displayed a combination of metacognitive, affective and social strategies in planning the completion and submission of their homework tasks, and (self-initiated) review of their peers’ work. Some learners considered the review of peers’ work to be an additional practice opportunity (a cognitive strategy) as it gave them additional input and the chance to revise their work. The opportunity for insight into one another’s work prompted some learners to contact peers and display interested concern in their progress. Within this learner group, a form of mutual supervision or monitoring occurred, which is explained by Gang in Diary Excerpt 1.

Diary Excerpt 1: [Learner] Gang

Everyone is watching one other’s performance. For example, I submitted my audio work to the group, but someone hasn’t. I might wonder why they didn’t, and other classmates may have this idea as well. We asked if they needed any help with submitting the exercises, then they quickly uploaded the work.

5. Discussion

In this study we explored the adaptation of an ESOL course for older migrant language learners to online learning in a context of ERT, informed by the perspectives of the school manager, the teachers and the learners. This school succeeded in continuing to work throughout 2020 without curtailing its operations, or making any teaching staff redundant, despite the considerable loss of international student enrolments that afflicted the local English Language Teaching industry (see Gerritsen, 2020). The focus on the domestic market, that is, resident first-generation migrants (in this case older learners) contributed to ensuring that the school remained economically viable.

The school’s adaptation to the ERT mode, despite almost no previous experience in online teaching, can be attributed to the collaborative approach taken by the manager and teachers towards redesigning the course curriculum, and the cooperation and confidence of the learners in accepting the new delivery mode. Thus, the collaborative form of leadership exercised by both the manager and the teachers (as described in Woods & Roberts, 2019) was vital for the success of the school in adopting ERT, in that opportunities for co-development of the curriculum were provided through the regular meetings during work hours, and were understood as opportunities for practice-informed curriculum development. In a daily evolving, unpredictable scenario of ERT, the lead taken by practitioners in the operational planning was vital to identifying and addressing issues that affected course delivery.

The teachers exercised leadership in guiding the learners in the adoption of online learning technology in the manner recommended in Gacs et al. (2020) and White (2003), by providing L1 instructional support and trial sessions, and by supporting one another in the classroom in adapting to teaching through Zoom, and adapting the curriculum and teaching materials to online delivery. Part of this adaption involved changing the curriculum to meet the communication needs occasioned by the pandemic and the resultant public health emergency measures, which were of particular importance considering the vulnerability of this age group, but also contributed to the learners’ sense of membership in the broader community, as discussed in Pot et al. (2018).

According to learners’ own accounts, this in-class treatment of health-related language relevant to Covid-19 supported learners in attending to (and learning inductively from) written and spoken public messages related to the pandemic in daily life. Further, redirecting the focus of language input towards vocabulary (which was presented visually and with L1 support) rather than the explicit instruction of grammar (which requires more abstract thinking) eased the demands on cognitive processing skills for this learner group (see Cox, 2015).

This decision to de-emphasise grammar was primarily motivated by the teachers’ lack of experience in online teaching and the limited time available for them to prepare grammar-focused lessons suitable for this delivery mode and learner group. While Cox (2017) demonstrated that explicit grammar instruction had no particular advantage for language learning among older monolingual learners (which largely corresponds to the profile of this leaner group, as most had either no or very limited previous language learning experience and could not be considered to be bilingual), she noted that older language learners expect explicit language instruction, as it accords with the form of teacher-directed learning typical in their youth, a consideration that resonates strongly with the cultural background of this particular learner group.

Arguably, an important aspect of success of the teacher-led shift to ERT was the acknowledgement of, and responsiveness to, affective factors. In the case of both teachers and learners, lack of confidence and frustration with the use of technology and the adaptation of the course curriculum to online delivery could have been detrimental to them, and to the process and to learning outcomes (as discussed in Johnson et al., 2020; White, 2003, 2006), particularly considering the low self-confidence and tendency towards age-related self-defeatism documented among older language learners (Derenowski, 2017; Ramírez Gómez, 2016; Singleton, 2018). Steps taken to address the socio-affective needs of students, which included regularly scheduled synchronous communication, such as face-to-face sessions or texting (on WeChat), individual (private) corrective feedback on homework, and the visibility of other learners’ activities, contributed to reducing feelings of isolation, strengthening the perception of community membership, and boosting learners’ confidence in their ability to learn English online. With respect to the teachers, the regularly scheduled work meetings and the team teaching in the first week created an in-house support system to aid teachers working from home, and to build their confidence in transitioning to ERT.

Recommendations for online teaching methods with older learners tend to identify learner centred, communicative based approaches such as task-based language teaching (Cox, 2015; Fisher & Wolf, 2000). Nevertheless, older learners may find it difficult to adapt to approaches which depart from their previous experience of formal education (Nizegorodcew, 2017; Sɫowik-Krogulec, 2019). This learner group, influenced by the traditional Chinese pedagogy of their youth, expected a more teacher-directed approach, with explicit corrective feedback and ample scaffolding (including frequent use of the L1). This preference may, however, also be explained by the circumstances of the course delivery. The ERT mode was a new experience for both teachers and learners, and it occurred in a broader social context of societal disruption and unprecedented governmental intervention in daily life. In these circumstances, learners may have been more likely to perceive frequent directive guidance from the teacher as necessary and desirable. As a result, findings from research in the context of ERT may not necessarily be transferrable to teaching older learners in ‘normal’ circumstances.

The most frequently used learner strategies identified in interviews and the learner diaries constituted memory and cognitive strategies. This might be due to learners’ perception of the need to compensate for age-related cognitive decline (as noted in Derenowski, 2017; Grotek, 2018), but also due to the more limited opportunities to communicate spontaneously with peers, in the manner possible in a F2F classroom setting and the reduced hours of synchronous teaching in the ERT curriculum.

Of the indirect strategies, learners made particular use of metacognitive strategies to manage and monitor their learning progress. Their ability to resort to such strategies and to maintain their learning motivation throughout the programme can be attributed to their prior educational background, and their desire to grasp an opportunity for language learning that was not available to them in their youth.

While Singleton (2018) notes that older learners may not wish to be in segregated age-determined learner groups, for this learner group profile, the approach was appropriate. Firstly, learners frequently compared their performance with their peers, that is, other older learners (a factor that is viewed positively for learner self-esteem, see Pfenninger & Polz, 2018); and secondly, teachers were able to adjust the curriculum and their teaching style to the specific needs and preferences of this particular learner group (Grotek, 2018; Sɫowik-Krogulec, 2019). This age-related segregation was arguably particularly important due to the online teaching mode, as older learners’ experience with technology is usually quantitively and qualitatively quite different from that of younger learners.

5.1. Pedagogical implications

In conclusion, we wish to underscore three pedagogical implications from our study. Firstly, this experience has highlighted the imperative for online teaching (or at least, blended learning) to be a component of all teacher training programmes. While school administration may swiftly appreciate the economic advantages of running online programmes, dedicated pedagogical training for this teaching mode is essential to maintain educational quality, and equip teachers with the knowledge and skills to use modern software and online resources in a manner that maximises students’ engagement and learning outcomes. This particular generation of older learners brought little familiarity with technology but in the near future the prior experience with, and current use of, technology among older learners will be considerably greater. Relatedly, the importance of experience with online teaching in the education sector is vital in a country prone to natural disasters such as New Zealand, as noted in an earlier study by Ayebi-Arthur (2017) on the adaptation to ERT by a university in the aftermath of major earthquakes in 2010/2011.

Secondly, age-related segregated classes for older learners have numerous benefits, perhaps particularly so where the group shares preferences for particular instructional styles that are informed by their cultural heritage.

Thirdly, an unexpected finding in this study was the importance of out-of-class language learning for this learner group, and as a result, we believe, of integrating local out-of-class language-rich experiences into the curriculum. Due to their strong motivation to lead independent lives and to engage socially, this learner group displayed particular interest in connecting class content to language use in their environment and, on account of their retired status, had the time to pursue this. While mobility may sometimes be an issue, we encourage teachers to consider class fieldtrips or fieldwork with a cultural or linguistic focus (for instance, an ‘English literacy walk’ as described in Chern & Dooley, 2014), as an approach to increase social interaction and learners’ confidence in navigating their environment. This approach reflects Nørgård’s (2021) call for hybrid learning curricula embedded within, and sensitive to learners’ particular contexts, and which promote interconnections between students and a range of social actors.

Finally, we wish to acknowledge that, due to their recently-arrived migrant status, the participants in this study were particularly motivated to improve their language competence and in consequence, adapt to the ERT learning conditions. We recognise that not all older learners necessarily have this strong incentive to persevere.

Authors’ contribution

Both authors contributed equally to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yuanyuan Xu

Yuanyuan Xu holds a Master’s of Applied Linguistics with First Class Honours and a teaching qualification from the University of Auckland, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Zhejiang Normal University in China. She has taught English as an additional language in China for three years, and she has taught Chinese in New Zealand for two years. She is about to start a career as a teacher of Chinese in New Zealand secondary schools.

Louisa Buckingham

Louisa Buckingham lectures on courses in applied linguistics in the School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics at the University of Auckland. She publishes on topics related to language and technology, academic writing, sociolinguistics and corpus-informed discourse analysis.

Notes

1. This was a course for new migrants funded by the New Zealand government.

2. Pseudonyms are used for all participants.

3. A Chinese-language online platform for delivering exams.