Pandemic-Triggered Online Teaching in Romania. A Language Teacher’s Perspective

Abstract With the restrictions caused by the pandemic, schools closed and classes went online in the spring of 2020. Suddenly, teachers found themselves in unexpected situations they had to deal with. With limited IT skills and no training courses offered by the Ministry of Education guiding them into the world of Google Classroom, Meet, or Zoom, teachers all over Romania had to cope with e-learning somehow. In the present study, I propose to investigate some of the positive and negative aspects of going online, to compare digital language classes involving different age groups (pupils of elementary schools or middle schools vs university students), as well as the diverse social background which influenced online learning to a large extent. I also intend to look at teaching different language skills: is there any relevant change in this respect as opposed to teaching face-to-face?