ESL Teachers’ Professional Development on Facebook During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Schoolteachers and college instructors from around the world can create or join special Facebook pages (FPs), groups, or clubs for ESL teachers for free. Those FPs are online learning communities that provide opportunities for in-depth peer-to-peer interaction, communication, and support. This study aims to give examples of FPs for ESL teachers; identify the kinds of topics and issues posted about the teaching and learning of English as a second/foreign language; find out whether there are special ESL Teachers’ Facebook Pages (TFPs) that focus on remote teaching and learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic; whether there are difference in the topics posted in TFPs before and during the Pandemic; and to explore the advantages and shortcomings of TFPs, and their role in teacher’s professional development before and during the Covid-19 Pandemic as perceived by a sample of ESL teacher who are members of those pages. 2500 posts from 75 ESL TFPs were analyzed. It was found that 12% are general TFPs, 42% target ESL teachers in specific countries, 16% are devoted to recruitment and job announcements, 38% are theme-based, and 22% focus on online/virtual and home-based teaching. The topics that teachers post in the TFPs, teachers’ views of the benefits and shortcomings of joining TFPs, and the role of TFPs in their professional development are reported in detail.