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The year 2020 was a horrible shock for both educators and students worldwide because of the COVID-19 disease. The whole educational process had to undergo cardinal changes in that it was forced to transition from face-to-face to online mode. Distance learning (DL) became the new reality in no time. This unusual situation prompted us to conduct research on what challenges it meant for tutors to cope with the new requirements. The main goal of our case study was to get insights into the altered daily routines of tutors and understand how the system functioned. Another objective of our survey was to provide a brief synthesis of distance learning, based on the academic literature. We have applied the qualitative research design, using a semi-structured interview as a research instrument for collecting data from the respondents. The research sample consisted of thirty-four college tutors teaching language and literature (English, German, Ukrainian, and Hungarian). The participants were requested to reply to eleven questions either online or face-to-face. The results proved how unexpected and difficult it was to move from the classroom to distance education. They emphasized how crucial digital literacy is for both instructors and students. One of the essential implications is that teachers must develop their digital skills in every possible way. The next stage of our research will be to investigate what impact DL has on teachers' and students' physical and psychological well-being.

Purpose. Our research has been conducted in a region of Ukraine where no direct military operations have occurred since 24 February 2022. However, we have been living in the shadow of the horrible ongoing war; regular air raid alarms have had negative impacts on people who feel mental constraints: uncertainty, anxiety, anger, despair, disillusionment, and often hopelessness. Thus, the primary aim of our survey was to get deeper insights into the feelings and attitudes of our students towards the war in order to help them process the situation they have been living in. Methodology. We have applied the quantitative research method in our study. We designed an online questionnaire using Google Forms with sixteen 16 Likert-scale-type questions. It was administered online to college students aged 17–24, having 17 different majors. Altogether 194 questionnaires were completed and returned during February and April 2023. Descriptive statistics were calculated with the objective of providing a clear and concise summary of the data that would allow us to gain insights into the main topic under consideration, as well as to understand patterns emerging within the data. Results. The findings suggested that students were mostly worried about the outcomes of the war. Students were rather informed about the happenings of the war, although about a third of the respondents claimed they did not follow the daily news from the front. A large majority of research participants were optimistic about the fast and positive ending of the war in spring 2023. In contrast, only approximately a third of the students were absolutely positive about the future of their native land after the end of the war. Conclusions. Overall, it can be stated that the students’ attitudes towards the war were rather optimistic. It is two years now that the war has been going on. The initial optimism of our students concerning the outcomes of the war must have changed during this time. Therefore, as a further research direction, a cross-sectional study is due to be performed in which we trace the shift in attitudes of our students towards the war in Ukraine and compare and contrast them with previous results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present article is to describe ethnography as a qualitative approach frequently applied in foreign language acquisition research (Pollard,1985; Smith, 1992; Robinson-Stuart and Nocon, 1996). Reviews of two studies having used ethnographic techniques are presented in the paper to highlight the theoretical background for such an investigative method. The first study discusses issues about participant observation, while the second depicts the language learner in the role of the ethnographer. The paper also tries to throw light on the various tasks of the ethnographer as well as the values (emic and holistic view) and limitations (the insider/outsider dilemma) of ethnography. Key words: Culture, Ethnography, Ethnographer, Qualitative Research- Techniques, Participant Observation El objetivo de este artículo es describir la etnografía como un método cualitativo que es utilizado frecuentemente en la investigación de la adquisición de una lengua extranjera (Pollard, 1985; Smith, 1992; Robinson-Stuart and Nocon, 1996). En el documento se presentan reseñas de dos estudios que implementaron técnicas etnográficas, con el propósito de resaltar los antecedentes históricos de este tipo de método de investigación. El primer estudio trata acerca de temas relacionados con la observación de los participantes, mientras que el segundo estudio presenta al aprendiz de lengua en el rol de etnógrafo. El documento también da varias pautas sobre las tareas del etnógrafo, así como los valores (el punto de vista émico y holístico) y las limitaciones (el dilema interno y externo) de la etnografía. Palabras claves: Cultura, Etnografía, Etnógrafo, Técnicas InvestigaciónCualitativa, Observación Participativa