Due to the health emergency associated with the COVID-19 epidemic, teaching was primarily delivered remotely in the 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22 school years, and it is crucial to research how this implementation change has affected teachers' work, the quality of their teaching, and ultimately students' knowledge.
In this master's thesis, we have researched how lower primary English teachers perceive distance education. In the theoretical part, we have described the specifics of teaching English to younger learners (lower primary level), the possibilities of using ICT in foreign language teaching, the possibilities of distance learning, the similarities and differences between distance learning and classroom teaching, and the impact of school closures on the way English was taught in Slovenia and worldwide. In the empirical part, we linked the points made in the theoretical part with a study of the perceptions of lower primary English teachers. This was done utilizing a questionnaire that examined teachers' perceptions of distance education, their perceptions of their competence in teaching remotely, their knowledge of and cooperation with their students, the lesson procedure, and the possibilities of transferring what the teachers had learned in teaching remotely to face-to-face teaching. We also examined how factors, such as teachers' age, seniority, and students' grades, influenced the teachers' perceptions. The results were analyzed and summarized in the form of an assessment of lower primary English teachers' attitudes toward distance learning. In addition, some ideas for remote teaching improvement were added, as well as some suggestions for transferring good distance learning practice to regular foreign language teaching.
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