CAN TABLETS IN EFL CLASSES IMPACT STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TO LEARN ENGLISH?
The goal of this study is to understand if there is an impact on students’ motivation to learn English as a Foreign Language when mobile technologies are used to support active learning activities that develop students’ oral production competences. The participants were two teachers and their 106 st...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centro de Estudos Humanísticos da Universidade do Minho
2020-04-01
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| Series: | Diacrítica |
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| Online Access: | http://diacritica.ilch.uminho.pt/index.php/dia/article/view/265 |
| Summary: | The goal of this study is to understand if there is an impact on students’ motivation to learn English as a Foreign Language when mobile technologies are used to support active learning activities that develop students’ oral production competences. The participants were two teachers and their 106 students, who were using their own tablets at school as a result of school action plan for promoting the integration of technology in classroom activities. At the beginning and end of the schoolyear, students answered a questionnaire that contained three dimensions of a motivation index, collected from Gardner’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery. Following a preliminary analysis to these quantitative data, the instrument for qualitative data collection was created, an interview protocol which was applied to two teachers. After analysing the qualitative data, all the data were triangulated and the outcomes scrutinized. Thus, this mixed methods research design followed a sequential explanatory strategy. The results revealed a favourable tendency in terms of student motivation, although statistically significant differences were only found in the case of students with initial lower and moderate levels of motivation. Both teachers referred improvements in student participation and engagement in classroom activities. |
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| ISSN: | 0870-8967 2183-9174 |