Self-efficacy perceptions of high school teachers of English and students regarding their EFL competencies on EBA live classes

Digital learning seems to reshape education at an unprecedented speed, and technology already appears to have a domineering effect for a considerable length of time on education. Primarily upon the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic and the following school closures for 1.2 billion students in 189 countries, it has been technology that might act as a savior. In this period of complexity, technology can be accepted as one of the most potent remedies for the continuity of education for many countries, one of which is Turkey. The paradigm shift in the teaching and learning environment and the stakeholders' reaction has become a worldwide issue, primarily after the school closures. However, there is limited data concerning the responses of teachers and students of English towards online learning environments, which emerged as a sudden response to the pandemic. This research aims to determine the self-efficacy perceptions of English teachers and students working in the 9th Grades of public schools in Turkey during the live classroom practices, which started for the first time through EBA during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, this study also aims to develop the EBA live lesson platform as a language teaching and learning environment, considering the self-efficacy perceptions of teachers and students in terms of English teaching special field competencies determined by the Ministry of National Education. In addition, this research aims to contribute to the harmony of the Ministry of National Education and its institutional components; in terms of analysis of distance education and the effective use of distance education in Turkey, the development of EBA as a language learning environment, and the review of the special field competencies of teachers who work in public schools in Turkey. The study was designed with the explanatory sequential research design, one of the mixed-method research designs. Based on this objective, 16 EFL teachers employed in the Hatay city of Turkey during the 2020-2021 academic year and selected by the convenience sampling participated in the questionnaire, which served as the quantitative data collection stage of the research. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the same 16 EFL teachers and 160 student participants in the qualitative data collection stage of the study. A two-stage data collection and analysis procedure were adopted since there are two data collection tools in the study. In this context, for the quantitative part, SPSS 25.0 was employed. As a result of the research, it was found that there are some differences between English teachers' self-efficacy levels for the teaching process and their teaching practices in the class. Another important finding of the study was that there was a strong correlation between instructors' self-efficacy perceptions and their online teaching skills. A high correlation wasn't detected between teachers' self-efficacy perceptions and students' self-efficacy perceptions within the concept of EBA live classes. Key words: Distance education, digital teaching and learning, self-efficacy perceptions, synchronous teaching and learning, EBA live classes, English subject area competencies.