Nasim Ghanbari - Persian Gulf University
Sima Nowroozi - Persian Gulf University

The outbreak of COVID 19 has faced EFL/ESL practitioners around the world with unprecedented challenges. The sudden shift to virtual classes provided a new configuration of the roles for the stake holders. Teachers, students, school officials, parents, etc. all got involved in a new situation that they had to successfully handle. To shed more light on the way teachers managed the new mode of education caused by COVID 19, the present article rigorously documented the experiences of two English language teachers in a university context. Drawing on intensive and focused interview sessions, along with the teachers‘ own observations and diaries, the study categories the major types of challenges the teachers faced. In addition, the findings showed the particular strategies the two teachers adopted to handle the problems emerged throughout their teaching. The qualitative findings of the present study provide valuable solutions obtained out of the teachers‘ action research in the classroom context for the English language teachers in the current and possibly future virtual education practices. In this way, the study will contribute to ELT (English language teaching) professional teacher education programs.

COVID 19, ELT teachers, students, professional development, challenges, strategies