Pandemic, Problems, and Possibilities: A Qualitative Study of EFL Teachers’ Perspectives in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)^1,2

Pandemics are always unexpected scenarios where the education system has to scuffle and survive. Most recently, the Coronavirus plague caused dramatic changes in t educational settings, most prominently shifting from face-to-face to virtual systems of learning and teaching. A positive side of this online teaching and learning process is that the education system did not cease even in the most critical situations. However, the problem lay with the students and teachers who were not sufficiently qualified or trained for the technology used in virtual learning management systems (LMS). Occasionally, the educational institutes provided them with training workshops that were not sufficient. In this regard, the present study intended to probe into the experiences of EFL teachers in Pakistani universities to identify the problems they faced during e-teaching in the pandemic. In addition, it aims to identify ‘solutions’ for these problems as applied or suggested by the relevant teachers. For the said purpose, semi-structured interviews of 12 English Language teachers in three public and private sector universities have been taken. The responses are analyzed using inductive thematic analysis for qualitative data to develop codes and categories (using NVivo12). The findings indicate that EFL teachers faced an array of problems; however, they also found significant solutions and benefits during this online shift. The study reveals that besides all issues, teachers found online teaching quite beneficial in many ways. Therefore, the analysis suggests policymakers and stakeholders promote blended learning (a combination of the traditional and online systems) as a futuristic approach to cope with persisting and forthcoming situations.