Abstract
Despite the significance of motivational regulation in the development of second language speaking skills, few studies have scrutinized its relationship with an emergent learning context. This study investigates how differently tertiary level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners exert autonomy and regulate motivation by proficiency levels to acquire speaking skills in the target language via a videoconference platform. Specifically, it contrastively examines student and instructor responses to several contextual factors specific to EFL speaking class, including synchronous online video platforms, native English-speaking instructors, and an English-medium instruction (EMI) policy. Employing a mixed method, it analyzes questionnaire responses of 340 students from two Korean universities and subsequent interviews with students and their instructors. These analyses reveal that the learners employed instructor feedback and motivational self-talk most commonly to regulate their motivation while acquiring EFL speaking skills. Although students across all three levels of proficiency showed increased vulnerability to the learning context, those of the lower two were found to be less aware of the significance of the imminent context created by EMI and videoconferencing. They also sowed stronger tendency to the strategies depending on their perceptions of the contextual factors than the advanced group. These overt differences in motivational regulation among proficiency levels were hardly problematized by the instructors. Notably, their views on peer interaction via videoconference were distinctly positive, displaying a clear difference from those of the students. A discussion of these findings follows to give insight into EFL speaking instruction in the emerging higher education context.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
data and material used in the manuscript can be available upon request.
References
Adipat, S. (2021). Why web-conferencing matters: Rescuing education in the time of COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Frontiers in Education, 6, 752522
Atmojo, A. E. P., & Nugroho, A. (2020). EFL classes must go online! Teaching activities and challenges during COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Register Journal, 13(1), 49–76
Bailey, D., Almusharraf, N., & Hatcher, R. (2021). Finding satisfaction: intrinsic motivation for synchronous and asynchronous communication in the online language learning context. Education and Information Technologies, 26, 2563–2583
Biber, D. (1989). Styles of stance in English: Lexical and grammatical marking of evidentiality and affect. Text, 9, 93–124
Cao, Y. (2014). A sociocognitive perspective on second language classroom willingness to communicate. TESOL Quarterly, 48(4), 789–814
Cramer, D. (1988). Fundamentals statistics for social research. London: Routledge
Cramer, D., & Howitt, D. (2004). The SAGE dictionary of statistics. London: SAGE
Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. P. (2018). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (3rd ed.). Sage Publications Ltd.
Csizér, K., & Tankó, G. (2017). English majors’ self-regulatory control strategy use in academic writing and its relation to L2 motivation. Applied Linguistics, 38(3), 386–404
Doane, D. P., & Seward, L. E. (2011). Measuring Skewness. Journal of Statistics Education, 19(2), 1–18
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivation strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge University Press
Dornyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and researching motivation. Pearson
Feldman, R. (2013). Techniques and applications for sentiment analysis: The main applications and challenges of one of the hottest research areas in computer science. Communications of the ACM, 56, 82–89
Gibriel, M. (2019). Investigating writing strategies, writing anxiety, and their effects on writing achievement: A mixed method design. The Journal of Asia TEFL, 16(1), 429–436
Hampel, R., & Stickler, U. (2012). The use of videoconferencing to support multimodal interaction in an online language classroom. ReCALL, 24(2), 116–137
Han, Y., & McDonough, K. (2021). Motivation as individual differences and task conditions from a regulatory focus perspective: their effects on L2 Korean speech performance. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 15(1), 1–12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2019.1652614
Hung, Y. W., & Higgins, S. (2016). Learners’ use of communication strategies in text-based and video-based synchronous computer-mediated communication environments: Opportunities for language learning. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 29(5), 901–924
Hunston, S. (2011). Corpus approaches to evaluation: Phraseology and evaluative language. New York: Routledge
Jia, C., Hew, K. F., Bai, S., & Huang, W. (2021). Adaptation of a conventional flipped course to an online flipped format during the Covid-19 pandemic: Student learning performance and engagement. Journal of Research on Technology in Education. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2020.1847220
Jung, H. (2020). College students’ satisfaction with the overall implement of online classes and testing during the Corona 19 pandemic. Multimedia-Assisted Language Learning, 23(3), 392–412
Karimi, M. N., & Zade, S. S. H. (2019). Teachers’ use of motivational strategies: effects of a motivation-oriented professional development course. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 13(2), 194–204
Kim, J., Kim, E. G., & Kweon, S. O. (2018). Challenges in implementing English-Medium instruction: Perspectives of humanities and social sciences professors teaching engineering students. English for Specific Purposes, 51, 111–123
Kim, J., & Kim, V. (2021). Motivational regulation for learning English writing through ZOOM in an English-medium instruction context. English Teaching, 76(s1), 37–57
Kozar, O. (2016). Perceptions of webcam use by experienced online teachers and learners: A seeming disconnect between research and practice. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 29, 1–11
Lee, L. (2016). Autonomous learning through task-based instruction in fully online language courses. Language Learning & Technology, 20(2), 81–97
Liu, B. (2015). Sentiment analysis: Mining opinions, sentiments, and emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
MacIntyre, P. D. (2007). Willingness to communicate in the second language: Understanding the decision to speak as a volitional process. The Modern Language Journal, 91(4), 564–576
MacIntyre, P. D., & Legatto, J. J. (2011). A dynamic system approach to willingness to communicate: Developing an idiodynamic method to capture rapidly changing affect. Applied Linguistics, 32(2), 149–171
Mercer, S. (2015). Social network analysis and complex dynamic systems. In Z. Dornyei, P. D. MacIntyre, & A. Henry (Eds.), Motivational dynamics in language learning (pp. 73–94). Multilingual Matters
Park, E. (2020). Perception of learner anxiety towards online college English classes during COVID-19. Multimedia-Assisted Language Learning, 23(3), 320–338
Pyo, K., Yang, M., & Rha, K. H. (2021). Comparison of Korean college learners’ sense of community between full-sync and half-sync/half-async English courses. Journal of the Korea English Education Society, 20(2), 25–47
Razali, N. M., & Wah, Y. B. (2011). Power comparisons of Shapiro-Wilk, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Lilliefors and Anderson-Darling tests. Journal of Statistical Modeling and Analytics, 2(1), 21–33
Saldana, J. (2015). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage Publications Ltd
Shapiro, S. S., & Wilk, M. B. (1965). An Analysis of Variance Test for Normality (Complete Samples). Biometrika, 52(3/4), 591–611
Shih, Y. C. (2014). Communication strategies in a multimodal virtual communication context. System, 42, 34–47
Teng, L. S., Yuan, R., E., & Sun, P. P. (2020). A mixed-methods approach to investigating motivational regulation strategies and writing proficiency in English as a foreign language contexts. System, 88, 102182
Teng, L. S., & Zhang, L. J. (2016). A questionnaire-based validation of multidimensional models of self-regulated learning strategies. The Modern Language Journal, 100(3), 674–701
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Harvard University Press
Wang, B., Yu, S., & Teo, T. (2018). An exploratory case study into Chinese EFL teachers’ commentary practices in oral presentations. Taiwan Journal of TESOL, 15(2), 65–94
Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action. Harvard University Press
Zarrinabadi, N. (2014). Communicating in a second language: Investigating the effect of teacher on learners’ willingness to communicate. System, 42, 288–295
Zhong, Q. M. (2013). Understanding Chinese learners’ willingness to communicate in a New Zealand ESL classroom: A multiple case study drawing on the theory of planned behavior. System, 41(3), 740–751
Zimmerman, B. J. (2011). Motivational sources and outcomes of self-regulated learning and performance. In B. J. Zimmerman, & D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation of learning and performance (pp. 49–64). Routledge
Zimmerman, B. J., & Schunk, D. H. (2011). Handbook of self-regulation of learning and performance: An introduction and an overview. In B. J. Zimmerman, & D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation of learning and performance (pp. 1–13). Routledge
Acknowledgements
Not applicable.
Funding
Not applicable.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The authors equally contributed to the paper.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, J., Kweon, SO. Effects of English proficiency on motivational regulation in a videoconference-based EFL speaking class. Educ Inf Technol 28, 8401–8422 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11374-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11374-0