Pre-service EFL Teachers' Psychology and Rehabilitation about SLA through WhatsApp in Blended Learning for Special Education

Abstract

Using discussion boards on the internet as part of a blended learning strategy is becoming more and more common. Although this medium is widely used, little study has been conducted on pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) educators' ideas of acquiring disciplinary topics using online discussion forums. This research intends to address this vacuum by documenting the ideas of learning via like forums held by a team of fifteen pre-service EFL instructors engaged in a second language acquisition (SLA) course at the university level. Phenomenography was used to the analysis of interviews. We identified three experience classifications: reviewing material, metacognitively increasing knowledge, and negotiating knowledge. These include various approaches to course content, sending and replying to messages, and interactions with the instructor. Without the teacher's presence, possible issues were resolved using WhatsApp as an alternative venue. According to the findings, pre-service teachers must be trained in a deep learning strategy that involves meaning negotiation when they use online discussion forums (ODFs).