the challenges in english language education with online teaching in efl classes

Having seen the unprecedented commonness of online education, the current study aims to investigate the challenges facing efl teachers throughout an online english course of the elementary level. to accomplish this aim, the study adopted checkel’s (2007) process-tracing approach in order to reveal the causal instruments involved in the beginning, middle, and end of the course. the outcomes showed that deficient technological resources caused the greatest challenges during the course, especially in the initial and mid-sessions. furthermore, the two other causal categories, i.e., human and content resources, were at their peak at the beginning of the course and were no longer noticeable at the end of it. the most difficult challenges faced by the teacher were platform limitations, internet connection, and human resources’ unpreparedness for online education. moreover, the teacher’s and most students’ technological knowledge and media literacy increased by the end of the course, but some students adapted slowly to the sudden shift to online environments, and some other challenges come from within students include lack of in-person interaction, lack of motivation, learning attitudes, study habits, lack of personal practice, cheating during the course. finally, suggestions were made to prevent these challenges or handle them effectively upon their occurrence, especially in developing countries where the infrastructure for online education is inadequate and the majority of teachers, students, and institutions might not be adequately prepared for the online form of teaching and learning languages.