THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE ENGLISH CLASSES ON STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TO LEARN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Abstract

The circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic have brought about drastic changes in all aspects of human activities, including education. The challenges faced by educators worldwide have been to arrange online classes and provide an effective and motivating learning environment. The research presented in this paper analyzes student motivation for learning English in the setting of online classes, compared to traditional (face-to-face) classes. The main aim of this paper is to identify the factors of both online and traditional classes that positively affect student motivation in order to integrate them into an effective learning environment in the future. The focus is on factors of motivation that have been significantly affected by the pandemic, including the factors of physical conditions, methods of teaching and affective and interpersonal factors. This research was conducted at the Faculty of Technology and Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad, and included 120 engineering students who attended online English language courses. A questionnaire, used as a research instrument, consisted of statements related to the impact of online vs. traditional classes on student motivation to learn English, graded on a 6-point Likert scale. The obtained results indicated that students find the use of modern technology and applications quite motivating for learning English and that a certain flexibility, referring to the physical factors, could also be integrated into traditional classes. Interpersonal factors, such as face-to-face interaction with the teacher and peers, proved to be very important for student motivation. The research also showed that online classes reduce students’ speaking anxiety, but that the issue of anxiety in both types of classes requires closer attention and should be addressed by raising student awareness of this issue and employing methods that would encourage students to participate in the classes more actively.