Online environment: the challenges of motivating students to learn a foreign language

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Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University

Online environment: the challenges of motivating students to learn a foreign language

Boiko Liubov Mykhailivna Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor at the Department of Hotel and Restaurant and Tourist Business and Foreign Languages

Abstract

The article is focused on the opportunities and issues related to enhancing the motivation of higher education students to learn a foreign language through online instruction. Based on the examination of both theoretical references and empirical evidence, it has been concluded that fostering educational and cognitive motivation is an important goal of the educational process. When a teacher successfully maintains students' interest in learning a foreign language, motivation serves as both a tool for instruction and an instrument for personal growth and development. motivation education student

The author's primary focus has been on identifying the factors that lead to a decline in motivation to learn a foreign language when students enter higher education institutions. Additionally, the author explores strategies aimed at fostering positive motivation for learning English in an online setting.

At the beginning of their English language studies, students tend to be primarily motivated by external factors. However, as they progress in their learning journey, intrinsic motivation starts to emerge. This occurs as students establish specific goals and develop a personal interest in learning the language, driving their motivation from within.

Motivation in students arises when they possess a personal interest in the subject matter, the capability to successfully complete a task, and receive a valued outcome. This implies that their goals and needs play a crucial role in shaping their motivation levels. When a student exhibits educational and cognitive motivation, it becomes essential for the teacher to nurture and strengthen the student's cognitive motives.

The paper illustrates various instances of positive motivation within online classes by implementing diverse and captivating learning tasks. In this process, the utilization of authentic materials that are relevant to the student's field of study and available online is a crucial factor.

Keywords: online education, motivation, higher education student, online environment.

Бойко Любов Михайлівна кандидат філологічних наук, доцент, доцент кафедри готельно-ресторанного та туристичного бізнесу й іноземних мов, Херсонський державний аграрно-економічний університет

НАВЧАННЯ ОНЛАЙН: ПРОБЛЕМИ МОТИВАЦІЇ СТУДЕНТІВ ДО ВИВЧЕННЯ ІНОЗЕМНОЇ МОВИ

Анотація

Стаття присвячена можливостям та проблемам, пов'язаним з підвищенням мотивації студентів вищих навчальних закладів до вивчення іноземної мови при навчанні онлайн. На основі аналізу теоретичних джерел та емпіричних даних зроблено висновок, що формування навчально- пізнавальної мотивації є важливою метою освітнього процесу. Якщо викладач успішно підтримує інтерес студентів до вивчення іноземної мови, мотивація є як інструментом навчання, так і інструментом зростання та розвитку особистості.

Основна увага зосереджена на виявленні чинників, які призводять до зниження мотивації до вивчення іноземної мови після вступу студентів до вищих навчальних закладів. Крім того, автор досліджує стратегії, спрямовані на формування позитивної мотивації до вивчення англійської мови в онлайн середовищі.

На початку вивчення англійської мови студенти, як правило, мотивовані переважно зовнішніми факторами. Однак у міру того, як вони просуваються у своєму навчанні, починає з'являтися внутрішня мотивація. Це відбувається, коли студенти ставлять конкретні цілі та особисто зацікавлені у вивченні мови, керуючи своєю мотивацією зсередини.

Мотивація у студентів виникає тоді, коли вони мають особистий інтерес до предмета, здатні успішно виконати завдання та отримати позитивний результат. Це означає, що їхні цілі та потреби відіграють вирішальну роль у формуванні рівня мотивації. Коли студент демонструє навчально-пізнавальну мотивацію, для викладача важливо розвивати і зміцнювати пізнавальні мотиви учня.

У статті проілюстровано різні приклади позитивної мотивації на заняттях онлайн шляхом впровадження різноманітних і цікавих навчальних завдань. Вирішальним фактором у цьому процесі є використання доступних в Інтернеті автентичних матеріалів з галузі майбутнього фаху студентів.

Ключові слова: навчання онлайн, мотивація, іноземна мова, студент закладу вищої освіти, онлайн середовище.

Defining the problem and argumentation of the topicality of its consideration. Nowadays, access to education, particularly during times of war, is becoming a critical concern as it directly impacts the well-being and development of individuals and nations. Despite the challenges posed by wartime conditions, it remains imperative to prioritize and provide educational services to all students, including those studying for a degree in higher education. Through this, we uphold the essential right to education and enhance the strength and potential of individuals and the entire nation. Therefore, regardless of the difficulties faced, it is essential to guarantee that education remains available during these challenging wartime circumstances. Students from the de-occupied and temporarily occupied territories persist in pursuing their studies through remote learning, utilizing information and communication technologies. The integration of information and communication technologies is crucial in connecting students to their education despite physical distance. They can continue their education uninterrupted by accessing learning materials, communicating with teachers and peers, and participating in educational activities.

Online learning was not new for teachers or students since the quarantine period; however the current wartime situation has presented additional challenges and demands, especially on a psychological level. The psychological impact of living in a time of conflict, with its uncertainties and potential dangers, adds an extra layer of complexity to the educational process. It is well-known that motivation tends to decrease in situations of danger. When individuals are afraid or experiencing chronic stress, their ability to perceive new information becomes compromised, and they may encounter difficulties with memory. Those processes have been studied by the well-known researchers like R. Sapolsky, B.S. McEwen, S. Lupien, E. Phelps [1, 2, 3]. Recognizing the impact of fear and chronic stress on motivation and cognitive functioning is crucial in creating supportive learning environments that prioritize the well-being of individuals. By addressing these factors and providing appropriate resources for managing stress and fear, we can help mitigate the negative impact on motivation and facilitate optimal learning experiences.

Research on the factors that stimulate or inhibit students' language learning, which can help develop more effective teaching strategies, will encourage students to learn foreign languages. The motivation of students to learn a language is strongly interconnected with their academic success, as it impacts their willingness to persist in language learning. When students are motivated to learn a foreign language, they demonstrate higher levels of engagement, effort, and perseverance in their language studies. They are more likely to participate in language learning activities, seek out additional resources, and practice consistently, all of which contribute to improved language proficiency and academic achievements. Therefore, research on motivation plays a key role in enhancing educational outcomes by establishing a supportive learning environment that sustains students' motivation to learn. Recognizing the urgency of the issue, increasing students' motivation to learn a foreign language in online learning has become a pressing concern in the current stage of education. It is important to keep researching the distinctive challenges and possibilities presented by online language learning. This will help ensure that students stay motivated in the virtual educational environment.

Previous Research in the Area. In psychology and pedagogy, there is no single point of view on understanding the essence of motivation, its role in human behavior, and the connection between motivation and motive. Numerous foreign and domestic researchers conducted investigations on motivation and motives as mental phenomena, among them Jan Amos Komensky, J. Korczak, R. Atkinson, R. Gardner, W. Lambert, A. Maslow, H. Heckhausen, D. McGregor, A. Makarenko, V. Sukhomlinsky, M. Boryshevskyi, Y. Gilbukh, H. Kostiuk, S. Maksymenko, V. Rybalka, O. Skrypchenko and others. The mental phenomenon of motivation is understood either as a set of factors that determine behavior (J. Godefroy, R. Madsen) or as a process of motivation to act and communicate to achieve certain goals. Educators and psychologists of today T. Alekseenko, V. Voloshyna, V. Klymchuk, S. Zaniuk [4] view motivation as a means to enhance knowledge, intensive implementation of ideas and goals. The problem of forming learning and cognitive motivation can be viewed as a teaching and educational goal. When a foreign language teacher sparks curiosity and engagement in the subject of the lesson, they use motivation as a tool for teaching and education. The student is interested in listening to the teacher and has a new motive for learning. The teacher cultivates this motive, and as a result, the student becomes inclined to engage in more challenging tasks. These tasks often involve independent work, where the student develops a need for self-directed learning and acquiring new knowledge. Thus, it can combine three features of motivation as a goal, means and result in the system of foreign language teaching. Motivation appears when we feel sufficiently emotionally inspired. And then the chain goes like this: emotional inspiration - motivation - action. Actions provoke emotional reactions and inspiration, motivating our next actions [5, p.123].

The objective of the paper is to explore methods to enhance the positive motivation of university students majoring in non-philology to learn English within an online learning environment.

Results and Discussion. Our research topic focuses on the motivation of university students majoring in non-philology to learn English as a foreign language. When we use the term “motivation” in this context, we are referring to the students' willingness to engage in the process of learning new material from various disciplines within the higher education curriculum. It includes reviewing and repeating previously learned materials from secondary school and applying them in practical activities to achieve a high level of proficiency in English, primarily in relation to their respective fields of study. At the same time, the student should always be prepared to overcome challenges and obstacles encountered while striving to attain proficiency in the English language.

Secondary school graduates enter higher education institutions and begin their studies in their late teens when their motivation to learn naturally declines. This decline is compounded by the stressful situation in which the entire population of our country is currently living. But despite these seemingly impossible conditions for learning, teachers and students find the strength to teach and learn. The surveys conducted by the authors during the first foreign language class reveal that students are motivated to learn a language due to their aspiration for effective communication, the desire to comprehend audio and video materials found on the Internet, and the ability to read foreign language books in the original language, including those related to their future profession, create and share publications in a foreign language on social networks, etc. Learning a foreign language requires a certain amount of effort, and students have already spent more than ten years at school learning it, and when they see no results, they become frustrated and refuse to move on. The reasons for the decrease in motivation can also be a boring program, the wrong approach to language learning, repetition of the same forms of work in class, psychological discomfort with the fear of making a mistake, and laziness. One can delve deeper into several facts that need closer examination.

Traditional, monotonous and non-dynamic teaching methods can lead to a decline in motivation. Each class begins with a homework check, followed by an explanation of new material, then the new homework, and so on for the entire semester, until the last page of the textbook. This kind of teaching causes boredom, ultimately diminishing the level of motivation. This can be addressed through unconventional approaches, such as watching a captivating excerpt from an English- language movie and summarizing it in English, or arranging a visit to a local coffee shop where each student is required to place their order in English. All that helps to liven up the classroom, students get a slight amount of stress, which in turn keeps their motivation to learn a language at a high level.

Another reason for the decrease in motivation may be materials and tasks that are not appropriate for the student's level, when the student's language proficiency level was incorrectly determined during the entrance test. Even if the student's level is correctly determined, it is crucial to ensure that the materials and tasks chosen by the teacher are neither excessively challenging nor overly simple. The right balance is essential in order to provide appropriate learning opportunities and maintain the students' motivation. Students should be interested and see that they can cope with different types of tasks, i.e., that their motivation level does not decrease.

The lack of reward and a specific goal can also be a reason for a decrease in motivation. When the students have clear understanding of the goals they need to achieve, it is easier for them to sustain their motivation. For example, he knows that daily work on learning words and phrases, grammar rules, and listening to audio will bring him to a new, higher level of English proficiency over a period of time. An exam can serve as a valuable goal. The students are aware of the necessity to successfully pass it, and they have a clearly defined task, such as preparing within a six-month period, achieving the required level of English proficiency, and obtaining a certificate. He or she will move purposefully towards achieving the goal: completing tasks, learning grammar topics, practicing writing skills, etc. Rewards also help here, namely: completed a task - received a reward - feels good - wants to do more to get more rewards. If students are not rewarded for their work and efforts, they may lose motivation and simply stop working.

Indeed, motivation plays a crucial role in foreign language learning, and it becomes the primary task of the teacher to sustain and nurture it. Motivation is a component of the students' subjective world; it is determined by their own ideas and needs. Therefore, the teacher should know and understand the motives of students. He or she can indirectly influence motivation by creating the prerequisites and grounds for students' personal interest as a system of interrelated and subordinate motives of personality [6, p.10]. Motivation in language learning is classified into two categories: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. There is a mutual transition between them from external factors to self-regulation [7, p.16]. External motivation is the motivation to achieve the final result of learning. Its manifestation is clearly visible at the beginning of learning a foreign language. According to the results of questionnaires conducted over several years among first-year students during the first foreign language class, the prevalence of extrinsic motivation was observed to range from 15 to 20 percent.

Intrinsic motivation is the desire to perform an activity for the sake of the activity itself, the feeling of satisfaction and joy from this activity, and not for reward or due to external requirements [8, p.56]. Intrinsic motivation involves a person performing an action as a result of realizing its importance for personal growth [9, p.54]. A student is motivated when he or she is interested, when he or she believes that he or she is able to do something and the result of his or her work will be noticeable, i.e. motivation is determined by his or her own aspirations, ideas and needs. If a student has educational and cognitive motivation, then the teacher's ability to constantly develop students' cognitive motives comes to the fore. This can be done with the help of the latest approaches to teaching. The entire learning process should be structured in a manner that enables students to experience a sense of satisfaction in fulfilling the inherent requirements of learning a foreign language. If the learning process itself fosters language acquisition and the student finds enjoyment in acquiring new knowledge, comprehending foreign language speech, and communicating in a manner that is understood by native speakers, it can be concluded that the student has a genuine interest in the discipline of foreign language. In order to maintain this interest, it is necessary that the learning material was not only understandable to students, but also interesting to them. Here, the teacher has the task of convincing students of the importance of the learning process.

Students derive motivation through comprehending the significance of the learning tasks. Understanding the purpose and importance of the tasks within the learning process contributes to their overall motivation.

One effective method to diversify classes and maintain high levels of positive motivation among students is by incorporating authentic materials. The Internet can be of great assistance to the teachers here. The teacher can ask them to discuss a real, not a study leaflet, an online advertisement, for example, from the UK as the country of study, an excerpt from a British TV show, a recipe or an interview. This type of task contributes to a better understanding of the material, increases interest in learning a foreign language in general, which in turn motivates to learn English of a future profession [10, p.167]. Working with first-year students has shown how motivational this type of work can be for them. For example, when studying the topic "Shopping", students are happy to search for the actual sites of online shops on the Internet, analyze the stock, and prepare presentations on clothes sections, such as "Sportswear" or "Knitwear". When studying this topic, it is also advisable to conduct role-playing games where students share the roles of shop-assistants and buyers. An excellent tool for online learning on the Zoom platform is breakout rooms, where students are divided into groups, according to their level of language proficiency or at their request. There, they engage on the preparation of dialogues, specifically in the context of the role-playing game called "Shops and shopping. Clothes and Footwear". These dialogues are then presented to the public during a session, creating an opportunity for students to showcase their work. Such assignments diversify online classes, and students feel responsible for the part of the class that they actually spend making a presentation, then answering questions from their group mates about the clothes in their presentations.

This combination of approaches fosters a positive motivation for learning English. Furthermore, conducting classes in an online format allows for extensive use of Internet technologies that would be somewhat problematic in a regular class (due to the limited availability of appropriate technical devices (projectors, laptops, etc.), or their high cost.

Conclusions and Perspectives. Motivation plays significant role in general human activities and also in the specific context of learning a foreign language. Its importance cannot be overestimated, especially in distance learning, where all classes are conducted online.

The paper identifies the factors contributing to the decline in positive motivation among students majoring in non-philological specialities when it comes to learning a foreign language within higher education institutions; it analyzes various tasks a teacher can choose to enhance motivation among students by leveraging modern technological tools and incorporating authentic materials sourced from the global Internet.

In the future, it seems interesting to analyze students' attitudes toward online foreign language learning. This analysis could focus on evaluating the effectiveness of specific exercises and tasks designed to enhance motivation in the learning process. This research would shed light on the efficacy of approaches and help identify the most impactful methods for motivating language learning in an online environment.

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Література

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