Unpacking Psychological Factors Affecting EFL Students’ Online Language Learning Engagement

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Published: Jul 19, 2023
Keywords:
EFL student engagement online language learning psychological factor quantitative design

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Thuy-Dung Thi Nguyen
Faculty of Foreign Languages, Dalat University, Vietnam
Thao Quoc Tran
Faculty of English language, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH University), Vietnam

Abstract

The learning modality has been greatly affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has resulted in switching from offline learning to online learning. While much research has investigated factors affecting students’ online language learning engagement, a few studies have examined the EFL students’ discernment of psychological factors. Therefore, this study adopted a quantitative design for data collection and analysis to scrutinize the psychological factors affecting EFL students’ online learning engagement. A group of 174 EFL students conveniently chosen from three universities in Vietnam partook in answering a questionnaire whose data were quantitatively processed by the SPSS software. Three remarkable psychological factors, namely relaxation, self-confidence, and anxiety, were found to affect EFL students’ online language learning engagement at a high level, whereas motivation, satisfaction, enjoyment, and interest moderately impacted their online language learning engagement. Additionally, anxiety was found to have no correlation with satisfaction but had negative correlations with other factors. Meanwhile, enjoyment, relaxation, interest, motivation, self-confidence, and satisfaction were positively correlated with one another from strong to modest levels. This study suggests some recommendations in an attempt to enhance the quality of online learning modality in the research contexts and other similar ones.

Article Details

How to Cite
Nguyen, T.-D. T., & Tran, T. Q. (2023). Unpacking Psychological Factors Affecting EFL Students’ Online Language Learning Engagement. LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network, 16(2), 429–450. Retrieved from https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/LEARN/article/view/266960
Issue
Vol. 16 No. 2 (2023): LEARN Journal (July-December)
Section
Research Articles
Author Biographies

Thuy-Dung Thi Nguyen, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Dalat University, Vietnam

A lecturer of English at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Dalat University, Vietnam. For over five years, she has been teaching English to students from different backgrounds, levels, and countries. Her research interests are English skills, applying ICT to language learning, and AI tools in language learning and teaching.

Thao Quoc Tran, Faculty of English language, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH University), Vietnam

A lecturer of English at the Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH University), Vietnam. He has been teaching English for 20 years, and he is experienced in teaching English to both local and international students. His research areas are discourse analysis, English language skills, teacher professional development, and instructional design models.

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