Factors influencing EFL students’ motivation in online learning: A qualitative case study

Abstract

Motivation is one of the key factors that affect L2 learners’ success and performance in the language learning process; that is why, widely concerns teachers and researchers. Amidst a global health crisis that urged most English preparatory schools across Turkey to carry out their EFL lessons online, the question of motivation attracted even more attention. A qualitative case study was conducted in order to explore students’ perceptions of online teaching and how it affects their motivation over a period of a seven-week-course. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and creative writing samples of 12 students from an intact classroom. Both interviews and creative writing tasks demonstrated that students overall have negative perceptions towards online teaching which they believe has a negative impact on their motivation due to lack of social interaction, a mismatch between expectations and content, organizational problems and the organization of learning environments.

Keywords

• online
• motivation
• case study
• student perceptions

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