Challenges and opportunities of online education for EFL teachers during COVID-19 period

This mixed methods study aims to reveal online experiences of EFL teachers who taught at Türkiye' s secondary or high schools during Covid-19 times. Specifically, the study aims to find out challenges and opportunities of online education period for EFL teachers. Besides, the strategies employed to overcome the challenges faced by the EFL teachers are also focused in this study. In the study which qualitative side outweighs quantitative side, data were collected from the participants through semi-structured interview forms and questionnaires. Findings showed that from EFL teachers' perspectives, the biggest challenge was specifically students' lack of motivation. In general sense, findings addressed that the most frequently encountered problems by EFL teachers were the ones regarding technology, the ones regarding students' lack of participation and the ones which stemmed from teachers' inexperience. With respect to opportunities of online education for EFL teachers, flexibility and advantages regarding technology are the primary ones. As a conclusion, findings showed that EFL teachers and students adapted to online education, most of the problems faced in the beginning times of the online education process were solved; however, the problem that each and every student cannot participate in the online classes still could not be solved.