Impacts Of COVID-19 Anxiety And Distance Learning On Iraqi Undergraduates During Curfew In Iraq

Abstract

The study examined English language students' opinions as foreign language learners in the first year, wherein English is learned during distance education due to the covid-19 pandemic. 100 Iraqi EFL undergraduate students of English from a private university in Iraq, who are under curfew, are assigned to participate in this study. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used in this investigation. Two instruments are used, namely: An 18-item online Likert scale to measure the students’ Covid-19 anxiety and Semi-structured interviews to measure their beliefs towards distance learning (distance education). The findings reported that Iraqi EFL learners had a high level of COVID-19 Anxiety that led them to lose their focus on learning and prefer face-to-face learning inside the classroom. Interviews showed that some participants are not satisfied with the interaction via online learning of the English language because of a lack of knowledge about technology and low-speed internet.; however, they are needed to be provided with the required materials and to be supported for technical problems states.  Furthermore, the present study demonstrated that Iraqi participants lack some characteristics such as self-independent. In other words, they usually rely on their teachers who highly lead them to lose their self-confidence. Finally, the present study suggests that Iraqi EFL lecturers and some learners need exposure to technological devices and training in order to enable them to use such devices to overcome such obstacles.