Informal distance learning as an aiding tool in the teaching-learning process at times of pandemics : an exploratory study investigating the use and effect of social media by Algerian EFL teachers at the level of secondary schools

الملخص EN

As of late 2019, the emergence of the high speed spreading Corona Virus (Covid-19) which later turned into a pandemic forced everyone to stay home in a seemingly unending quarantine.

As a result, a lot of outdoor activities that represented our daily routine had to stop including going to school.

However, soon after this new situation occurred, a lot of countries started coping with it by providing what is called distance learning at all educational levels.

In the Algerian educational context, the use of the online platform offered by the Ministry of Education actively increased among students, but the lack of live interaction with teachers and the situation where the student is forced to sit and only receive posed many flaws on the process and made it difficult to proceed with this form of learning.

To overcome this problem, the excessive use of social media among kids and teenagers was put to use by many teachers.

It was an alternative and a way of non-formal learning to make the EFL teaching-learning process very much easier and more flexible and fun.

This exploratory study aims at measuring the extent to which teachers in secondary schools use social media and interactive apps in the EFL teaching context during both regular and exceptional times, how they are used and what outcomes are expected, the goals that are achieved and the obstacles that are faced.

A mixed method of data gathering and analysis was adopted through distributing a questionnaire to a number of secondary school teachers in El Meghaier, Algeria.

The results show that social media platforms are not fully benefited from as informal teaching tools.

The reason is not due to teachers' ignorance of how these tools work, but other concerns on the part of teachers.