EFL Professors’ Perception of the Use of Virtual Platforms for Education at the University of Cuenca

Abstract

During the last few years, education in Ecuador underwent a forced transition of modality due to the restrictions caused by COVID-19. All levels of education, including higher education, went completely virtual. This change had great repercussions for English language teaching professionals that have not been analyzed in depth. Since English teachers are an essential part of the teaching staff and of the educational process in the classroom, it is important to know what their perceptions were related to English language education in the virtual world. This descriptive research analyzes the perceptions of the teachers of the University of Cuenca related to the teaching of English as a foreign language. After surveying 31 teachers from the Language Institute and the Pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) program teachers, it was found that the use of virtual platforms in the teaching of English brought with it an advance in self-learning since students became more independent. However, language productive skills (Speaking and Writing) were reduced due to low student participation. Additionally, according to the teachers, virtuality brought with it problems of academic dishonesty that could not be solved due to the lack of control within this modality of studies. Finally, the results obtained coincide with other studies by different authors who mention that English teachers consider the constant use of these platforms to be negative.