A research paper published in a Scopus-indexed journal

Face-to-Face and Online English Lounges: A Comparative Analysis
Massuline Antonio D. Ligaya, Hyun Jung Lee, Joung-Hyun Ham, Randy S. Tolentino,
Thomas Edward Farrell II, and Christopher Glenn Gunther
International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 12, No. 9, September 2022, pp. 888–897
DOI: 10.18178/ijiet.2022.12.9.1698

Research Summary

English conversation lounges provide university students with opportunities to practice a foreign language outside the formal classroom in a more relaxed and socially interactive environment. At the university examined in this study, the English Café Program (ECP) was established to give students additional opportunities to communicate with foreign English teachers, improve their speaking ability, and develop greater confidence and more positive attitudes toward interacting with foreigners. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced university activities online, the program shifted from its traditional face-to-face format to a virtual environment, creating an opportunity to compare the effectiveness of the two modes.

The study employed a descriptive-comparative survey design and examined the ECP during its face-to-face implementation in 2019 and online implementation in 2020. The student participants came from different academic departments and were members of the same general cohort: 800 students were selected for each phase of the study. Nineteen foreign English teachers also participated in both phases. Separate but closely parallel questionnaires for students and teachers assessed the perceived effects of the program on two principal outcomes: students’ speaking ability and their attitude toward foreign teachers. The study also considered teachers’ educational qualifications and length of service. Data were analyzed using frequency and mean analyses, t-tests, correlation analysis, and simple linear regression.

Both students and teachers perceived the face-to-face and online versions of the English Café Program as improving students’ speaking ability and their attitudes toward foreign teachers to a great extent. Although some mean scores differed between the two delivery modes, statistical testing showed no significant difference between the perceived effects of the face-to-face and online programs. This suggests that moving the conversation lounge to a virtual environment did not substantially diminish its perceived effectiveness.

One of the study’s most notable findings concerned the relationship between students and their foreign teachers. Students’ speaking ability was strongly and positively correlated with their attitude toward foreign teachers in both the face-to-face (r = .881, p < .01) and online (r = .889, p < .01) implementations. Regression analysis likewise indicated that attitude toward foreign teachers significantly predicted perceived speaking ability in both settings. These results emphasize that language development involves more than simply providing opportunities for practice; the quality of the student-teacher relationship and students’ comfort in interacting with their teachers also matter.

Teachers’ educational qualifications did not show a significant positive relationship with the major student outcomes. An unexpected finding was that teachers’ length of service was negatively correlated with students’ speaking ability in the face-to-face implementation (r = -.532, p < .05), although this relationship did not appear in the online implementation. The study treated this result cautiously and suggested that it warranted further investigation rather than assuming that greater teaching experience itself adversely affects student learning.

Overall, the findings support English conversation lounges as valuable forms of out-of-class language learning. They also demonstrate that such programs can be successfully adapted to online environments, potentially expanding access to students who cannot regularly participate in on-campus sessions.

Research Contribution

The study contributes to research on out-of-class language learning by providing a direct comparison of face-to-face and online English conversation lounges within the same university program. Its findings suggest that the effectiveness of a conversation lounge depends less on whether interaction occurs physically or virtually than on whether students are given meaningful opportunities to communicate and develop positive relationships with their language teachers. The study therefore provides practical support for universities considering hybrid, online, or flexible conversation-lounge programs as supplements to formal language instruction.

Keywords: English lounges, out-of-class language learning, speaking ability, foreign English teachers, student-teacher relationship, online learning, face-to-face learning

Full Text

The full text of this publication is available upon request. Researchers, educators, students, and other interested readers who wish to obtain a copy may contact the author through this website or by email at madligaya@gmail.com.