Advantages and challenges that Serbian teachers face while teaching English as a foreign language to Chinese students online

Abstract

Although nearly a quarter of the world's population speaks Chinese as their mother tongue (Hua 2002), a large number of Chinese people learn English in order to expand their opportunities for international communication. Many Chinese people therefore strive to master the English language for their education or work. This statement is confirmed by the existence of companies such as TutorABC, BedaKid, BiBo, Magic Ears, etc., which offer English teaching services. In this article, we will present the findings of the following researchers (Lamy & Hampel 2007; Manegre & Sabiri 2022; Mohd Nordin et al. 2022; Tao & Gao 2022, etc.) in relation to online foreign language teaching. We will relate our findings to our empirical research, which focuses on English teachers from Serbia. All of them have worked in one or more of the aforementioned companies. Based on the survey, we will present the teachers' views on the following aspects of online teaching: (1) technological aspects – what are the advantages and disadvantages of using computers and online platforms; (2) cultural aspects – are cultural differences in the classroom problematic or beneficial, and what are the characteristics of the students. Based on these aspects, we would like to provide a more comprehensive picture of online teaching in order to highlight advantages that may have been overlooked, as well as point out potential difficulties that arise with any new form of teaching and should be avoided.