Since the world was hit by the pandemic Covid-19, our life is quickly changing. Many people have to work from home due to health protocols applied by the government. Even though the pandemic has changed our lives, we are still being able to be active and productive in our working routines. Not only has the way of working had to change but also the way of studying. Many schools now conduct their classes through the online system. The learning process however is still the same; the only difference is the way it is done.
It is the same for those who want to improve their English skills. Most people find it uneasy to learn English online because they are used to conventional learning systems. People might doubt the effectiveness of learning English online. However, the online learning system has both advantages and disadvantages, but it is better to focus on the benefits it brings. We will discuss both sides so we could be sure whether the online English learning classes are effective or not.
There are some advantages of learning English through the online system. First, we can stay healthy. During this pandemic, it is really important for us not to go out if it is unnecessary. We have to keep ourselves healthy by avoiding crowds and washing our hands often. So, the only way for us to learn English is through the online system. Fortunately, now we have many online conference platform options for learning English online. The platforms such as ZOOM, Microsoft Teams and even Google Meetings can be chosen. The online conference platforms also provide us with many facilities such as screen sharing and audio sharing. We can see or display the slides to each other which is so convenient during the learning time. Therefore, online English learning classes can be as fun as the offline ones.
Second, we save more time. By attending online English classes, we can save our time since we do not need to go to the English course place. We do not need to waste our time going through the traffic jams just to reach our English course. We do not need to worry about being exhausted from commuting. We can just simply turn on our computer or laptop and attend the online English class. We can choose our own comfortable place to have the online English class. It also means that we could have more time to spend with our loved ones.
Third, we have more time to explore the materials. Since we do not need to go out, we can have more time and chances to explore the topic or materials that we get from the online English class. We can spend more time on improving our skills by exploring more throughout the internet. With the help of the internet, we can collect all the information we need. We can also browse for supplementary exercises to enhance our English skills further.
Apart from the advantages, online English learning can also have some disadvantages. First, lack of real socialisation. Although we do see our teacher’s and friends’ faces on the screen, sometimes it feels different if we see them in person. We might feel that there is distance and we can even feel bored as we do not have them to interact directly with us. This can happen because humans basically need to socialise with each other.
Next, our focus is easily interrupted. This might happen quite often due to some internal and external factors. The internal factors which come from our surroundings could be a problem. Since we attend the online English class from home, we might easily be distracted by other people at home, such as our parents, siblings, spouse, kids, etc. They do not intentionally distract us but sometimes it happens just like that. They may call us asking for something or even suddenly come into our room to check on us. It leads to the loss of our focus. Internal factors could also be when we are tempted to do our personal tasks during the session. Yes, we do attend the online English class but we do our personal tasks at the same time. Again, it may cause us to lose our focus on the lessons. Then, the external factors could also be the obstacles when we attend online English classes. An unstable internet connection is the thing that usually happens when we are having the online course or meeting. Our connection will suddenly reconnect or we acn even be signed out from the course or meeting. To anticipate this happening, we could try to subscribe to a good data plan. We should also turn our camera off during the course when our internet connection is unstable to avoid being logged out from the course or meeting. It seems inconvenient but we always need to prepare for the worst case to happen.
After discussing both advantages and disadvantages of having online English courses, we now can surely decide that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. As we could see that the disadvantages are more to the technical problems which actually can be anticipated. It depends on our actions to prevent the problems from happening. When we compare it to the advantages that we could get from learning English Course online, we can be sure that it is worth it. No matter what our learning style is, the most important thing is we should be active in improving ourselves to be better in English.
To sum up, online English learning is very effective when we know what to expect during the learning process. We should be able to anticipate the possible problems that can occur so our learning will be effective and meaningful. Thus, we should not be confused anymore because we already know that the advantages that online English learning offers, are way more than the disadvantages.
