Challenges and opportunities of EFL teachers in Thailand during emergency remote teaching

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine the challenges and opportunities of Thai EFL teachers during emergency remote teaching. The participants of this study included ten Thai EFL teachers working in public secondary schools of large to extra-large size and teaching English foundation courses online during emergency remote teaching. The interviewees were selected using the snowball sampling techniques. The research instrument was the semi-structured interview form. A thematic analysis was performed using the gathered data. The findings revealed that the challenges of Thai EFL teachers during emergency remote teaching included the following: technological difficulties, English-language teaching struggles, unreliable assessment and evaluation, ineffective classroom management, lost relationships, and individual student unreadiness. In addition, the study identified several opportunities for Thai EFL teachers during emergency remote teaching as follows: knowledge and skill improvement for online teaching, motivation for professional development, reduction of teacher workload, English-language skill teaching opportunities, more effective on-site teaching, and application to other duties.