Student Attitudes Toward Foreign Language Learning During Wartime in Ukraine

Abstract

Introduction. The war that has raged in Ukraine for over a year and a half has profoundly affected our students at the Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, both physically and mentally. It was hypothesized that the war had a negative impact on students’ learning; learning a foreign language was challenging due to numerous distracting factors. Consequently, students’ attitudes toward language learning were adversely affected. Purpose. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of what students experienced during martial law, their overall feelings about language learning, how this challenging period influenced their attitudes toward language learning, and the specific challenges they encountered. To achieve this, a survey was designed. Methods. An anonymous online questionnaire was developed to gain insights into the research questions. It consisted of three blocks of Likert-scale statements. Students had to rate the extent to which these statements were true for them on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 meant ‘not at all true,’ and 5 meant ‘totally true.’ In total, 194 questionnaires were completed. Results. The results have revealed intriguing findings. A significant majority of students (75%) expressed optimism, believing that wise decisions would soon be made to end the war as soon as possible. Additionally, students expressed high levels of satisfaction with the Google Classrooms assigned to every discipline at the college (77%) since they greatly facilitated the monitoring of their studies. Conclusion. Students highlighted their appreciation for the opportunity to have offline classes despite the challenging circumstances. They emphasized that language learning was significantly more effective when there was direct contact with teachers and fellow students (79%).