Teaching and social presence in online foreign language teaching

This paper examines and reports on ways of promoting teaching presence in foreign language online learning environments in Finland and Spain. ‘Teaching presence’ refers to all the tools and resources teachers use during online courses to deliver teaching, guidance and feedback, or situations in which they are present for their students. A qualitative approach was adopted, and data were collated from questionnaires completed by 34 teachers and 16 students involved in different online language courses at different educational levels. The aim was to examine (1) the extent to which students’ views on feedback and teaching presence in online courses differ from those of teachers, and (2) the impact teaching presence has on student engagement and behaviour in online courses. Based on the polling data, both teachers and students find student engagement to be significant in fostering learning in an online environment. Students tend to be generally satisfied with teacher feedback.


Introduction
Research has shown that teaching presence plays a vital role in online education, as it connects students and teachers who are not physically in contact (Garrison & Cleveland-Innes, 2005;Nami, Marandi, & Sotoudehnama, 2018;Sheridan & Kelly, 2010). Online teachers design the structure of online courses, create learning tasks, and plan course schedules. Throughout the course, teachers assist students in interacting with their materials, peers, and teachers. Furthermore, they not only instruct students, but also provide them with feedback and monitor their social activities online (Garrison, Cleveland-Innes, & Fung, 2010). However, teachers are faced with new challenges in online learning environments, and as mentioned in Yang, Quadir, Chen, and Miao (2016), it is of paramount importance to provide interpersonal communication opportunities for students to socially engage with their teachers and peers in order to afford online students a sense of presence similar to that in face-to-face classes. The importance of online presence has been highlighted by numerous studies (Garrison & Cleveland-Innes, 2005), and it has been found that teaching presence is important to maintain students' motivation, to prevent a feeling of isolation and to reduce the number of dropouts (Bowers & Kumar, 2015). Effective online guidance in language learning involves three main aspects: giving both time and attention to the learners, and showing them respect (Cunningham, 2015). Successful teaching presence also includes guidance in interaction during the online learning process, constructive use of peer reviewing, and providing feedback.
With these considerations, the two research questions are as follows.
• To what extent do students' views on feedback and teaching presence in online courses differ from teachers' views?
• What impact does teaching presence have on student engagement and behaviour in online courses?

Method
Our study explored how a group of 34 teachers (25 Finns and nine Spaniards) involved in different online language courses (English, Chinese, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Swedish, and Russian), in secondary, university, vocational, and private language school education, gave their students feedback via digital tools in order to guide and motivate them to perform their tasks regularly. 16 of these teachers' students, who voluntarily participated in the Finnish-Spanish study (11 Spaniards and five Finns), belonged to the 21-30 age group, and were studying English, Portuguese, French, Spanish, and Italian. They were requested to comment on how their teachers made their presence felt before, during and after a course.
A qualitative approach was adopted and the participants (both teachers and students) were asked to complete two questionnaires consisting of ten questions each, in order to gauge their views on (1) the effectiveness of the digital tools used to provide feedback, (2) how important student engagement online was considered to be, and (3) what their preferred digital tool would be. The data were categorised to match the two research questions.

Results and discussion
When comparing the results between the online tools teachers report using, and how students report getting feedback and their perception of teaching presence in online foreign language courses, it could be observed that there was coherence between the responses of both groups.

Effectiveness of the digital tools used to provide feedback
The students stated that they received sufficient feedback and guidance from the teacher, who was present online, making their presence felt prior to, during and after a course. When asked to respond to the statement I get enough feedback and guidance from my online teacher/tutor, 81.3% of the students agreed. Furthermore, 93.8% strongly agreed that their teacher provided enough feedback and guidance online.
When both teachers and students were requested to comment on the impact of teaching presence on student engagement and behaviour, the responses in both groups were similar in many cases. The teachers pointed out that they provided their students with substantial feedback and that student feedback was given regularly. The teachers also said that by being present online they became aware of their students' needs, and were able to encourage them to play an active role (e.g. via videoconferencing) online. In addition, and importantly, teachers could prompt students to interact with each other in online forums. However, a couple of teachers were critical: "It would be great to have more time for teacher presence, but teaching resources are limited, so teaching presence is limited to a minimum" (Finnish, November 2019).
"I'm a learner, so if we are moving from contact to online courses, I guess I have to adjust my pedagogy" (Spanish, November, 2019).
This suggests that some teachers need support in order to be able to cater for their students' requirements.

Student engagement online is important
75% of students perceived the impact of teaching presence on student engagement and behaviour as a positive experience. They mentioned, for example, that teachers were helpful and supportive, because they provided (1) advice on pronunciation, (2) feedback on spelling, and (3) made corrections and suggestions about how to improve their skills, and that they graded tasks and sent feedback. They also reported that teachers were concerned about students and took care of them, thereby confirming their appreciation of the role played by their teachers in their online courses.

Preferred digital tools
The teachers reported that they use a variety of online tools. Those preferred were discussion forums (91.2%), email (85.3%), recorded videos (70.6%) and videoconferencing tools, including Skype, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Adobe Connect (67.6%). Other tools mentioned included the comment tool and wiki.
The students reported that they preferred receiving their feedback in written form by email or in the discussion forum (12 students out of 16). This was due to four reasons: (1) written feedback is more flexible when it comes to time management; (2) it is easy to send emails; (3) teachers can respond at their convenience; and (4) students can reread the received feedback when necessary.
However, when asked: In an ideal case, how would you like to communicate with your online teacher/tutor?, 9 out of 16 reported that they would prefer personal online chat tools (like Skype, Hangouts, or WhatsApp) because it allowed them to discuss and clarify issues instantaneously. Regarding this, one student said: "A balance between written and face-to-face skype communication would be desirable in order to practise speaking" (Finnish, November 2019). Another commented: "Skype, although I might be ashamed" (Spanish, November 2019), but did not explain why.

Conclusions
This paper has shed some light on the importance of teaching presence in online courses, and the impact it can have on student engagement and behaviour. As the findings show, teaching presence plays a significant role in the organisation of courses, prompting students to engage with their materials, peers, and their teachers.
In the present study, both students and teachers have expressed positive views regarding their experience of both teaching and social presence in online courses. Although the students' preferred tool for receiving teacher feedback is email, as comments can be reread, they also consider videoconferencing to be a timely option. In their view, Skype could be a convenient tool because the teacher-student relationship can be more personalised. It has also been seen that the impact of teaching presence on student engagement is crucial for students to benefit from their learning experience. However, due to the small scale of the study, the findings cannot be generalised and, hopefully, more research in this field will widen the scope of teaching presence in online courses.