Motivation and E-Learning English as a foreign language: A qualitative study

• Main Authors: Fredy Geovanni Escobar Fandiño, Luz Dary Muñoz, Angela Juliette Silva Velandia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-09-01
• Series: Heliyon
• Subjects: Psychology; Education; CALL; Motivation; Meaning and benefits; E-learning
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844019360542

The motivation to learn a foreign language is a complex process. According to the Ministry of National Education of Colombia -MEN-, speaking English is a generic competence to be developed at all educational levels. In this regard and based on the Theory of Self-Determination -SDT-, this qualitative phenomenological study aims to identify and analyse the aspects related to the motivation to learn English in undergraduate students of the Virtual and Distance modalities -E-Learning-. The main instrument used for data collection was a semi-structured individual interviews. The participants in the research were a group of 16 women and 3 men. The analysis was carried out through semantic categorizations and with the support of NVivo 11 software, which lets assume that motivation for learning English is strongly influenced by external factors.