Licenciatura en Lenguas Extranjeras con Énfasis en Inglés · 2026

Foreign language students at Universidad de Córdoba: a phenomenological study of their transition back to inperson classes after covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic forced educational institutions worldwide to adopt emergency virtual modalities, causing unprecedented disruptions to the university experience. Although quantitative research has documented the academic and psychological effects of this transition, there is a gap in our understanding of how foreign language students, for whom interaction and communication are fundamental, experienced and constructed meaning from this phenomenon. This study explored students' perceptions of their transition from virtual to face-to-face classes after lockdown, specifically those who began their university studies in a virtual format. Using Husserl's descriptive phenomenological approach, analyzed through Giorgi's method (2009), semi-structured interviews were conducted with three 8th- and 9th-semester foreign language students at the University of Córdoba. The findings revealed six experiential dimensions: Collapse of Spatial and Temporal Differentiation, Attention Fragmentation and the Crisis of Academic Meaning, Absence of the Respondent Other, Virtual-anonymity: Protection and Paralysis, The Transition as a Paradoxical Return, and Paradoxical Gains: Self-Knowledge from Crisis. Students experienced the transition as a catalyst for metacognitive reflection on their needs as language learners. This study suggests that educational disruptions, while challenging, can function as critical moments of student growth when understood from the lived experiences of participants.