West University of Timișoara, Romania
Abstract
Motivation is an important factor that influences the learning of foreign languages (Gardner 1985). In the online teaching context, students need higher levels of motivation to become actively involved in didactic activities due to the wide variety of environmental stimuli that can distract them from paying attention to the classes.
In his social-educational model, Gardner (1985) emphasised three constituents of motivation, namely effort, willingness and affect. Effort refers to the amount of time spent studying and the learner’s drive. Willingness indicates how badly the learner wants to acquire linguistic competence in the target language, while affect refers to the emotions that learning a language triggers in the learner. Other factors that influence motivation for learning a new language are the teaching methods, with the teachers themselves (Harmer 1991) having the greatest impact on students’ motivation or demotivation. Hence, teachers must fully capitalise on the key principles that are the basis for motivation to learn, namely thorough planning of the didactic activity, the clarity, variety and attractiveness of the learning tasks, and encouraging student-student cooperation and engagement throughout the learning process. In addition, teachers must foster self-confidence to increase the students’ learning potential and to help them to become creative.
The present study aims to determine the motivational levels of first- and second-year students from the Faculty of Sociology and Psychology at the West University of Timișoara who were in the process of learning English and French in the context of online learning. Moreover, this study will investigate how online teaching/learning influences students’ motivation.
The instrument used in this study was adapted from the original seven-point Likert-scale format of Gardner’s Attitude / Motivation Test Battery (AMI; Gardner, & Lambert 1972), ranging from ‘Strongly Agree’ to ‘Strongly Disagree’. The questionnaire consists of three main parts: integrative motivation, instrumental motivation and additional open-ended questions about online teaching that could affect the students’ motivation to learn.
In order to design successful didactic activities in an online setting, which would increase the students’ motivation to learn a foreign language, teachers must re-think these activities in order not to diminish the students’ interest and to keep them involved in the learning process to the greatest extent possible.
The results of our research can be an excellent source of information for implementing programmes or relevant activities to improve the learning experience and to maintain high levels of motivation to learn. Adequately motivated students are efficient learners.
Motivation is essential when learning foreign languages and requires students to have positive attitudes towards their own learning processes. Motivation also triggers the students’ desire to acquire knowledge about the target language, to enjoy the learning process, and to experiment with real communication in interactions. In order to ensure that students are actively and willingly involved in foreign-language classes, teachers must create a positive, confident, reassuring learning environment, and students must be aware of their learning progress.
In conclusion, the three factors of self-confidence, experiencing success and satisfaction, and healthy teacher-student relationships have a considerable impact on the development of students’ motivation to learn foreign languages, particularly in the case of online teaching/learning situations.
Keywords: Learning a foreign language; Types of motivation; Online teaching.
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How to cite this paper: Lungoci, C. S. (2022). A survey study of students’ motivation for learning foreign languages in the context of online teaching. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 15(1), 113–126. https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2022.15.1.7
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