Online Teaching Experience of ESL Pre-Service Teachers in Malaysian Secondary Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Approaches, Challenges and Perceptions

The COVID-19 pandemic forced an abrupt transition from face-to-face classrooms to online platforms, placing exceptional demands on pre-service teachers who were completing their teaching practicum with little preparation in digital pedagogy. This study examined the online teaching experiences of English as a Second Language (ESL) pre-service teachers who taught in Malaysian secondary schools during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period. Three objectives guided the study: to identify the online teaching approaches used, to determine the challenges encountered, and to explore perceptions of online teaching. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was administered through Google Forms to 112 pre-service teachers who had completed their practicum between 2020 and 2023. Attitudinal items were measured on a five-point Likert scale anchored 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree, and were interpreted against a stated mean-score rubric. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests and one-way ANOVA. Respondents relied heavily on synchronous platforms — Google Meet, Zoom, Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams — supported by videos, presentation slides, online quizzes and worksheets, with group discussion and project-based activities the most common strategies; dedicated speaking practice was almost absent (0.9%). Self-reported teaching confidence was low, with only 9.0% of respondents selecting the top two scale points. All 13 attitudinal items produced means in the narrow band 2.12–2.50, which falls within the low range of the interpretation rubric, indicating that respondents did not, on average, endorse either the challenge statements or the positive perception statements strongly. The most endorsed challenge was difficulty preparing online teaching materials (M = 2.31, SD = 0.85) and the most endorsed perception was increased adaptability and creativity (M = 2.50, SD = 0.86). The narrowness of this band, together with subscale reliabilities below the conventional .70 threshold, means that differences between individual items should not be over-interpreted. The study concludes that teacher education programmes should embed structured online pedagogy within the curriculum through online micro-teaching and school-based mentoring rather than relying on incidental exposure during the practicum.

ESL online teaching, pre-service teachers, COVID-19 pandemic, teacher education, TPACK, Quality Education (SDG 4)

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