A Preliminary Study of Speech Acts in The Opening and Closing of Online Teaching Sessions

Abstract

In the academic sphere, devising innovative teaching and learning (T&L) approaches that align with evolving educational norms is always an ongoing endeavour. Although online teaching is not a novel concept in academia, the COVID-19 pandemic has undeniably accelerated its widespread adoption and now many higher education institutions are fully integrating it into their curricula. Research on virtual student-instructor communication in online teaching is relevant to gaining deeper insights into how students and instructors adapt to this mode of T&L practice. This preliminary study explores the speech acts used by an instructor when opening and closing three online teaching sessions conducted via Google Meet platform. The findings indicate that directive speech acts are the most frequently utilised, while expressive speech acts appear the least.