Abstract:
The aim of this study was to describe and find out motivational English language learning strategies through computers among Iranian EFL learners and find out how learners’ motivations change towards English language learning through computers.The mixed method approach (quantitative and qualitative) was employed in this study. A total of 84 (out of 130) female freshman university learners from a university in Isfahan were randomly selected to fill out the questionnaire reflecting their motivational English language learning strategies through computers.They were aged between 18 and 20 years old and were native speakers of Persian. They were all in intermediate level based on their English proficiency levels. Also, a group of 6 out of these 84 learners were purposefully selected for the semi-structured interview in order to get more in-depth information. The descriptive analysis revealed that the learners all used high level of motivational strategies while learning English as a foreign language. It also demonstrated that the learners' motivational strategies related to the use of learners' general feelings towards computers were more frequently identified. The findings of the interviews also revealed that the use of computers motivate and stimulate learners to learn their courses as well as to communicate with one another more effectively. The implication of this study is to use computers as a teaching tool in classes and the learning motivational strategies through computers should be utilized in learning environments
Machine summary:
A total of 84 (out of 130) female freshman university learners from a university in Isfahan were randomly selected to fill out the questionnaire reflecting their motivational English language learning strategies through computers.
Therefore, this study aimed tofocus on the motivational strategies of Iranian EFL freshman university learners learning English language as a foreign language through computers.
The data collection instrument consisted of a questionnaire adapted and modified from Warshauer (1996) aiming at finding out the Iranian female freshman learners' motivational English language learning strategies through computers.
Findings and Discussions Descriptive Analysis of the Level of the Motivational Strategies through Computers Table 1 shows that the learners' replies were categorized into three ranges (low, moderate and high) based on their overall mean scores and frequency of their total motivational strategies of Iranian EFL freshman university learners learning English language as a foreign language through computers.
Thus, according to Warschauer and Healey (1998) and Lee (2000), motivation plays an important role in the process of foreign/second language learning particularly through computers and integrative computer assisted language learning attempts to integrate the receptive skills (listening and reading) and productive skills (speaking and writing) as well as to integrate technology more completely into language teaching Descriptive Analysis of the Learners' Motivational strategies through Computers In order to achieve a conclusive and convincing finding, Table 2 shows a descriptive analysis (frequencies, means, standard deviations and rank orders) of the learners' motivational strategies through computers by categories.