Challenges of Oral Presentations in Online English Classrooms: Do Lecturers and Students Experience the Same?

Abstract

With the wave of the pandemic in the recent years resulting in a sudden shift from offline learning to online learning sessions, assessments had been revised to adapt to the changes. This study was conducted with the aim of eliciting the lecturers’ and students’ perspectives on the difficulties faced by them in the implementation of online oral presentation in Malaysian English classrooms. This study employed a qualitative approach by interviewing 15 students and 6 instructors on the practice of online oral presentation assessments. The data were analysed employing thematic analysis. It was found that the challenges faced by the lecturers were in terms of providing feedback and number of students, while time management, practice arrangement, technical problems, and lack of feedback were the challenges faced by the students. This study recommends the faculty and the management to look into these issues so that both lecturers and students could optimise their time and materials for teaching and learning purposes. It is also suggested to consider the perspectives from the faculty and management for future research as they are the decision makers towards the curriculum.