Re-Constructing the Mentality of (Language) Learning: Post-Pandemic Challenges

The precautionary educational measures undertaken to fend off rampant contagion caused by COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closing down of in-person instruction and migration towards online teaching and learning. What followed was a rush towards the implementation of a ‘pandemic pedagogy’ in which digitally-driven technologies were positioned as a frontline emergency service. With the pandemic now nearly behind us, it seems that finding quick-fixing solutions has also adversely impacted the effectiveness of digitally meditated education, creating a series of caveats related to the imposed use of technology and media. The paper therefore argues that the urgency of finding solutions that could stand the test of the pandemic, on one hand has eluded sound pedagogical principles of online education, while on the other has given way to an unprecedented educational experiment consisting in the re-fostering, re-generating and re-motivating the mentality of learning.