A Systematic Review of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Learning Environment of Immigrant English Learners in the United States

Handbook of Research on Establishing Digital Competencies in the Pursuit of Online Learning

Introduction

When the COVID-19 global pandemic began spreading in the United States in the spring of 2020, all K-12 schools were closed to mitigate the risks associated with this emergency (White House, 2020). As a result of the pandemic, the education system worldwide incurred immense change, forcing teachers and students into a new learning environment different from the previous brick-and-mortar schools (Joshi et al., 2021; Wolfe & McCarthy, 2020). A new term described the new form of alternative online learning: emergency remote teaching for the collaborative but temporary screen-sharing environment of the instruction that was implemented during the initial stage of the pandemic (Hodges et al., 2020).

Although technology has been integrated into classrooms and was a significant part of instruction, face-to-face instruction required substantial modification to adapt to an online environment (Tawfik et al., 2021). Educators of all levels, from K-12 to higher education, had to adjust their content to a remote learning context in less than two weeks. Thus, given the nature of the new environment, technological and professional resources of schools became the key factors that determined the feasibility and quality of this transition. While many teachers demonstrated some level of digital competency during the pandemic, insufficient training for online instruction or inadequate digital resources limited their self-efficacy in their delivery of instruction (Ogodo et al., 2021). Teacher instructional and pedagogical practices were affected by their students’ response and engagement to a change in the learning environment, because not every student had equal access to a quality learning environment, resources, family support, or technological devices to engage in the lessons (Shores & Steinberg, 2022). In learning a second language, it is important to have social interaction supported by teacher input (Sayer & Braun, 2020). When engaging in social interaction, students are usually divided into leveled reading groups, or they receive one-to-one instruction (Sayer & Braun, 2020). However, this type of enriched scaffolded learning was interrupted during the pandemic. Recent research reported that disruptions to learning have impacted students disproportionately, especially minoritized students such as students living in rural areas, those from high-poverty backgrounds, students with disabilities, English Learners (ELs), and immigrant origin students (Cardullo et al., 2021; Hamilton & Gross, 2021; Lazarin, 2020; Ogodo et al., 2021; Sugarman & Lazarin, 2020). Hence, the nation’s most vulnerable populations did not receive enough support and guidance during the pandemic, since these students tend to live in low-income areas with fewer educational resources. Therefore, the interruptions to their learning environment created more harm compared to their affluent peers. There are studies that identify these disruptions, such as lack of technology devices/tools/resources and emphasize the need for social-emotional support to K-12 general education students. However, few studies have explored how the pandemic affected EL immigrant students, and their remote learning experiences in school. This research is important because it can provide roadmaps to navigate future interruptions to learning. Thus, this systematic review aims to examine existing research about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S school context regarding immigrant origin students who are concurrently ELs, in order to identify research gaps and inform future studies with how to best support and improve student learning in post-pandemic classrooms.