Perceptions of secondary level students and teachers taking private tutoring in English Online in Bangladesh

Abstract

COVID-19 situation gave the world quite a drastic change. Even in the education sector, some serious problems have risen, as the method of teaching has changed its direction and shifted to online platforms. Along with online learning, tutoring via online platforms has become popular during this pandemic. Tutoring of English is also a part of such online learning. This study is an effort to understand the perceptions of those who are involved in online private tutoring in English (PTE), in an ESOL context such as Bangladesh. The study further investigates the challenges secondary level teachers and students face through PTE. This study employed a qualitative multiple case study approach where the researcher interviewed five students and three teachers of seven schools inside Dhaka. The major findings of this study revealed some positive perceptions due to the usefulness and the convenience of online platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Facebook. While, there were some problems the participant faced problems of internet connectivity, lack of concentration, disturbance from the surrounding, and some device-related issues. The outcomes will help the teachers to think about how to improve PTE on their parts, while students will be able to work on their shortcomings. The present study is significant in terms of private tutoring in English using modern technology in a developing country such as Bangladesh where technological infrastructure is not much advanced.