Students’ Isolation Challenges in Blended EFL Learning During COVID-19: How Can Social Presence and Interaction Help Develop Sense of Community?

PURPOSE: Due to COVID-19, many English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers chose to blend online and offline teaching. However, students in this modality face challenges in presence and feel isolated. Thus, the research investigated the relationship between social presence and sense of community in Chinese blended EFL learning during the pandemic and examined the role that interaction played in the relationship between social presence and sense of community. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Based on a purpose-sampling, 237 EFL students from three universities in the eastern part of China participated in this study using a set of self-rated questionnaires that assessed three variables: social presence, interaction, and sense of community. SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 24.0 were used to verify the hypotheses through structural equation modeling. RESULTS: This study found that ① the mean scores of social presence, interaction and sense of community varied from results of previous studies before the outbreak of COVID-19, and possible reasons were discussed; ② social presence had a significant impact on sense of community (p < 0.05) without interaction as the mediator, and interaction proved to be a full mediator in the relationship between social presence and sense of community [β = 0.164, p = 0.001, 95% CI (0.072, 0.311)]. CONCLUSION: In blended EFL learning during COVID-19 in China, social presence was positively related to sense of community, and interaction mediated this relationship fully. The present findings could help teachers better facilitate the virtuous interaction circle in online or blended EFL learning and, in turn, promote effective learning of learners.