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Sokeng Piewo Stephane Celeste
University of Yaounde, Cameroon

 

Abstract
In March 2020, the Cameroonian government decided to stop face-to-face classes because of the pandemic of COVID-19 and switch emergently to remote learning to slow down the propagation of the disease. This was a radical change in the way of teaching in Cameroon universities especially in public universities. This study explores the challenges of language learners in tertiary education towards this new way of learning. The method adopted for this paper is an online survey made up of 20 questions which analysed the format of classes and assessments, the challenges learners faced with questions on ICT tools they used during remote learning, access to and quality of internet connection and ways to overcome these challenges. The findings reveal that level 2 students of the bilingual department at the University of Yaounde I faced a lot of challenges during the emergency remote learning because of the coronavirus among which the lack of adequate tools to follow classes, very poor access to internet connection, difficulties in accessing the university website, or the absence of teacher/students live interactions. Some tentative solutions have been provided in this paper to solve these difficulties.

 

Keywords
Emergency remote learning, COVID-19, language learners, challenges, tertiary education