Approaches and Challenges of Teaching ESL Essay Writing Online: A Study on an English Medium School

Abstract

The global pandemic of 2020, has made most schools in Bangladesh switch to the online platform. Prior to the pandemic, schools mostly operated offline through face-to-face interaction between students and teachers, as such the transition from offline to online teaching made use of Zoom, Google Meet, or other similar software. The main objective of this research explores the teaching methods of English essay writing online, reasons for teachers’ preference of an approach, as well as problems they face while teaching essay writing using a particular approach online in an English Medium school in Dhaka. Suggestions to improve the teaching experience will also be accounted for. The research used two essay writing approaches- Product Approach and Process Approach, to identify the type of approach used to teach English essay writing online. The researcher used semi-structured interviews as qualitative data collection method and survey forms as quantitative data collection method. Eight teachers from a Dhaka based English Medium School were selected. The interviews were collected through phone conversations and their answers were analyzed thematically in line with the queries posed in the research questions of the research paper. Findings suggest that some aspects of product and process approach are used by teachers based on various classroom situations, and more than the teachers’ literacy on computers, some features of the portal cause limitations in giving feedback, motivating students or teaching essay/paragraph. Lastly, some teachers agreed that students’ regular work needs checking apart from assignments. Moreover, these findings provide insights into the pedagogical approaches, reasons for teachers’ predilection to an approach and challenges teachers face as they adapt to using technology while teaching essay/paragraph writing in ESL online classrooms in a Dhaka based English medium school.