EXPLORING UNDERGRADUATE ENGLISH STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION

OF EMERGENCY REMOTE LEARNING IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

PANDEMIC: AN INTERVIEW STUDY

INTRODUCTION
A. Background
The effect of COVID-19 pandemic has been changing the landscape of
teaching and learning dramatically all over the world since the initial outbreak of
the novel coronavirus existed in 2020. United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported that many educational institutions
including universities around the world was physically closed as an effort to
protect public health and safety from the attacks of the corona virus disease
(UNESCO, 2020). Given that the coronavirus is very extremely dangerous, from
March until now for example the government of Republic of Indonesia has
instructed campuses to transform their teaching and learning process from face to
face or traditional to online or new virtual learning environment. This is done to
stop the spread of the virus by protecting students, staffs and teachers or lecturers
and to ensure a safe and healthy learning environment (Cao et al., 2020; Huang et
al., 2020).
With the establishment of "study from home" with the transformation of face-
to-face learning to online learning in the universities higher education context,
consequently, Indonesian students experience significant challenges in adjusting
to online learning and maintaining least a minimum of communication with their
lecturers and other teaching staffs. Although the use of online learning platforms
is not something new, most students are not familiar to adapt and use them in the
current situation, so they likely felt stressed, anxious and confused to conduct
teaching and learning activities at online classes. Therefore, choosing the right
learning platforms help students reduce their mental psychology such as anxiety,
stress, and boredom in online learning (Gillis & Krull, 2020; Markova et al.
2017). In addition, while students have no access to broadband internet service or
the internet connection is slow, the activities of the emergency online learning
cannot run well. The low internet access can affect their online learning
performance and increase the levels of stress and anxiety during COVID-19
pandemic ( Gillis & Krull, 2020 ; Morris, 2011, Roy et al., 2020). It is because the
students may perceive this crisis time as burdensome in emergency remote
learning. In contrast, Wei & Chou (2020) reported that the students with positive
perceptions feel more confident and ready for online learning. This shows that
students feel more confident in using online platforms and the internet in learning
due to the variety of learning resources and technology that can support their
online learning activities.
Thus, the transition from face-to-face learning to online learning certainly
affects students' perceptions of the new learning environment. The current study
aims to investigate how the undergraduate English students perceive the remote
emergency learning during COVID-19 pandemic in the terms of learning
experiences, challenges and the way to cope with learning problems.
B. Research Questions
Based on the introduction above, the researcher formulates the key research
questions to address as follows:
1. How are the undergraduate English students’ perception toward emergency
online learning during COVID-19 pandemic ?
2. What challenges do they face in emergency online learning during COVID-19
pandemic?
3. How do they cope with their learning problems at online learning in the
critical time?
C. Objectives of the Research
Based on the research questions above, the objectives of this research are to
explore how the undergraduate English students perceive the emergency online
learning, what major challenges they experience and the way of them cope with
the online learning during COVID-19 pandemic.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Design
This study adopts a qualitative interview study. This design is employed to
explore the undergraduate English students in depth and get the information about
their perception of emergency online learning in the pandemic crisis. The
Interview study enables the participants to express themselves and allow the
researcher to explore the knowledge about the paricipants’ experiences and
perceptions in their own language (Patton, 2015; Marton & Booth, 1997; Kvale,
2008). Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the students experienced a learning
transition from face-to-face or traditional class to online or virtual learning class.
The difference between face-to-face learning and online learning can exert
influence the students’ perceptions of learning the courses in a university in the
time of COVID-19 pandemic.
B. Participants (Sample) and Setting of the Research
This present study involves five undergraduate English students from a
private university in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan province, Indonesia with
under pseudonyms : Wendy, Arin, Yuyun, Ayu, and Lia. Widodo (2014) argues
that considering the research ethics, the researcher should provide the
pseudonymous names and initial identities in doing the research. All the
participants sit at the seventh semester for the study program of the English
language education and studying at the same private university in Banjarmasin
city, South Kalimantan province, Indonesia. During the spread of COVID-19
pandemic, they are forced to be the active participants in the online learning
various courses with the lecturers through using some platforms such as Zoom,
Google Meet, Whatsapp and so on. All of the genres in this study are female
students who range ages between 20 and 24 years old. Two participants live
outside Banjarmasin city and the rest live in Banjarmasin city, South Kalimantan
province, Indonesia. In general, their English proficiency is good enough with the
intermediate and upper level. Those are revealed in their academic transcripts
which are very satisfaction especially their English language skills.
 There are two main reasons why the researcher recruits the participants
voluntarily in this present study: (1) The researcher and the participants have close
relationship and intimacy in making friends during studying English from the first
semester until the seventh semester, so it enables the researcher to get the more
information easily about their perceptions of emergency online learning various
courses and (2) the participants have willingness and readiness to take a part and
want to help the researcher in completing the study.
Table.1. Demographic Information of the Participants
Participants Gende Age University Semester Major Length
r of Online
Learning

Wendy Female 20 Private 7th English March

university, Language 2020
Banjarmasin Education until
January
2021

Arin Female 22 Private 7th English March

university, Language 2020
Banjarmasin Education until
January
2021

Yuyun Female 21 Private 7th English March

university, Language 2020
Banjarmasin Education until
January
2021

Ayu Female 21 Private 7th English March

university, Language 2020
Banjarmasin Education until
January
 2021

Lia Female 24 Private 7th English March

university, Language 2020
Banjarmasin Education until
January
2021

C. Procedures of Collecting Data

In collecting the data, the researcher employs a semi-structure interview to
investigate undergraduate English students’ perceptions of emergency online
learning in the time of COVID-19 pandemic. The interview process is undertaken
virtually by using Whatsapp and Zoom application, but the direct face-to-face is
also conducted for some of the participants who are willing to be interviewed on
the site. Harrell & Bradley (2009) states that interviews could be conducted in
face-to-face or by using telephone or technology to obtain required data. Before
having the interview, the researcher contacts the five participants directly through
personal chat on Whatsapp application to ask their willingness in participating in
this present study. After the five participants agree, the researcher then explain the
goals of the study to the participants and negotiate the time and venue of the
interviews with them. All of participants are interviewed individually at the
different time and venue. The protocol or the guideline of the interview sheet is
distributed previously to the participants so that the participants can learn and
answer the questions accurately and precisely. The series of the interview
questions emphasize on how they perceive emergency online learning in the time
of COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges they encountered since the emergency
online learning is implemented.
In the process of data collection, the researcher asks for the permission to
record the interview with an audio recorder of Zoom or Whatsspp application if it
takes place virtually, while recording with the smartphone is used in the moment
of the face to face or the site. During the process, the researcher and the
participants use Indonesian and Banjarese languages to communicate and the
researcher provides the freedom and flexibility to select the language they like.
The duration of the interview process takes around 30 until 45 minutes.
D. Analyzing Data
After the interview process are completed, the researcher transcribes the
interview data for the purpose of data analysis. The obtained data are then
translated from mixed languages (Indonesian and Banjerese) into the English
version. This data transcription are analyzed by the data reduction and coding
which are based on seeking the answers from the research questions. In addition,
the interview data are listened and read repeatedly to focus on thematic
subheadings and important points regarding the present study. In this respect, the
researcher employs a thematic analysis data to obtain the themes that often appear
(Braun and Clark, 2006). According to Widodo (2014), there are four steps to
analyze interview data as follows :
1) The data of interview are intensively listened by the researcher to find the
existing themes and the important points regarding answering research
questions.
2) Transcribing and translating the interview data are in the appropriate ways to
help the researcher reduce and code data.
3) The researcher interprets the interview data.
4) The researcher asks the participants to check and re-check the obtained data. It
is a kind of a member-checking to ensure the data accuracy that is already
transcribed and interpreted.
After the participants check, re-check and provide the feedback on data, the
researcher draws a conclusion and write the findings of the study.

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