🔗 linkedin.com/in/angie-jung-ed-d-3b920941

Research Focus: ESL/EFL Instruction • Post-Pandemic Learning

“Reconstructing ESL/EFL Participation in Post-Pandemic, Post-Digital, and Post-Human Classrooms”

What research challenge did your dissertation address?

Multilingual learners returning to in-person ESL/EFL classes after COVID-19 continued to face major participation barriers: reduced confidence, heightened language anxiety, and fear of judgment that limited their willingness to speak. Students carried over ‘camera-off’ habits, weakened peer interaction, and technology frustrations that made real-time engagement difficult, while passive learning formats limited opportunities for genuine intercultural exchange. My research examines how authentic, collaborative speaking activities can rebuild confidence, strengthen communication, and increase motivation for these learners.

What inspired you to pursue this research?

My inspiration came from teaching ESL/EFL during and after the pandemic. When students returned to campus, it was clear the effects of remote learning lingered: many struggled with confidence, communication, and motivation. As an Asian immigrant educator who has personally navigated language and cultural transition, I recognized their anxiety and hesitation deeply. I saw capable students silenced not by ability, but by isolation and limited authentic interaction, and that, along with my community work with immigrant learners, motivated me to explore collaborative speaking activities that could restore their voices.

What did your research find, and what is its impact?

Authentic, collaborative speaking activities meaningfully improved ESL/EFL participation in post-pandemic community-college classrooms. Students reported higher confidence and reduced language anxiety, especially after low-stakes rehearsal and structured peer feedback, and their oral communication strengthened, with more fluent, longer responses and expanded vocabulary. Culturally meaningful, multimodal tasks increased motivation and engagement overall. The study offers a practical, replicable model other instructors can adopt to rebuild participation and support multilingual learners’ confidence and communication in post-COVID classrooms.

“The study offers a practical, replicable model other instructors can adopt to rebuild participation and support multilingual learners’ confidence and communication in post-COVID classrooms.”

Angie Jung

Full dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20862599