EFL Students’ Challenges of Online Courses at Van Lang University during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced most activities around the world, especially EFL education. Due to the pandemic, all schools and colleges must turn traditional education into online education through online learning platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and so forth. The research aims to investigate the concentration challenges that EFL students at Van Lang University are encountering while they are studying online. The paper used quantitative and qualitative methods by conducting questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews with 100 second-year, third-year, and four-year students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Van Lang University (VLU). Based on the data collection, the results of this research have demonstrated that most EFL students faced some common distractions like external noises, unstable internet connections, the harmful effects of too much screen time, and so on. After the investigation, this study suggests that lecturers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Van Lang University look for numerous positive solutions to solve EFL students' trouble in order to enhance the quality of online courses.