Teaching and Learning Languages Online: Challenges and Responses

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 generated an unprecedented global push towards remote online language teaching and learning. In most contexts, language teachers and learners underwent a rapid switch to online instruction with limited resources and preparation. Their experiences demonstrate resilience, perseverance, and creativity under highly challenging conditions. This collection of studies examines the challenges that language teachers and learners have experienced in teaching and learning online, explores how they have addressed these challenges, and identifies critical lessons to help language educators better respond to emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. In this introductory article, we discuss the background of this special collection on teaching and learning languages online, provide a review of the growing body of research on online language education in the field, and introduce the studies published in the collection.