Despite majoring in English, many junior and senior college students face limited opportunities to practice their EFL speaking in class. Some self-motivated students, through self-regulated learning, seek beyond-class opportunities to tap into physical and virtual human interaction to hone their spoken English. This study examined junior and senior college students' level of self-regulated motivation to improve their speaking of English as a foreign language (SRMIS-EFL). It looked into the interaction of students' academic level and gender to their SRMIS-EFL. Participants were 300 EFL college junior and senior students from an English Department of a Yemeni university. This study utilized an online self-reported SRMIS-EFL questionnaire to gather data. Its descriptive and inferential statistical analyses revealed that senior students' overall level of SRMIS-ELF was high, while junior students' level was medium. It found that students used a range of motivation self-regulation strategies to improve their EFL speaking competence. It also indicated no significant relationship between students' SRMIS-EFL and their academic level. However, it evinced that students' gender had a small but significant effect, in favor of female students, on their SRMIS-EFL. The study suggests incorporating motivation regulation training into EFL programs to raise awareness of motivational self-regulatory strategies to cultivate student motivation.
Blended learning combines face-to-face instruction and online learning experiences. It capitalizes on online learning management systems, one of which is Google Classroom (GC). Nevertheless, empirical investigations have mirrored literature gaps in understanding how the GC platform affects students’ behavioral intention to harness it for web-based learning. Therefore, this case study applied a modified version of the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) as a theoretical underpinning to examine factors influencing graduate students’ behavioral intention to utilize the GC platform. Employing mixed methods explanatory sequential design, the study first analyzed survey data from 23 EFL graduate students implementing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Subsequently, it conducted a qualitative stage carrying out semi-structured interviews for data collection and thematic analysis for its evaluation. The study through PLS-SEM results revealed that the most crucial determinant of students’ behavioral intention toward the GC platform was habit, which hung on facilitating conditions and hedonic motivation. Besides, it evinced facilitating conditions as the most important performing interaction factor in determining graduate students’ behavioral intention. Nonetheless, it indicated that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation had no direct effect on behavioral intention. The follow-up qualitative findings explained that since the students mainly used the GC platform off-campus, the GC App on their smartphones and the interesting content on the GC platform sustained their habitual tendencies toward employing the GC platform. Accordingly, the study explicates implications and recommendations for theory, policy, and practice.
This chapter reports an exploratory study that examines Yemeni college students' perceptions of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL), using their mobile phones, in their informal learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The sample population comprised 150 EFL college students. Data were obtained through a questionnaire based on technology acceptance model (TAM). The findings revealed that EFL college students had positive perceptions towards utilizing MALL for informal EFL learning. Most participants maintained positive perceptions on the two constructs of TAM: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. They believed that utilizing MALL furthered their EFL learning. Therefore, policymakers, curriculum designers, and educators are recommended to capitalize on using mobile phones for informal autonomous EFL learning in a way that can serve the objectives of formal EFL learning.
This article is an action research of quasi-experimental nature. It aims at investigating the effect of CALL-based instruction on Yemeni students' score attainment on the TOEFL iBT. The sample of study consisted of 30 adult students randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Data was collected within an 8-week period via a pretest-posttest design for equivalent groups. The experimental group participants were also interviewed to elicit data about their attitudes towards CALL. The findings of the study indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental group (trained with CALL) and the control group (trained conventionally) in the total gain scores, as well as in the section gain scores of reading, listening, speaking and writing. The findings also showed that the participants in the experimental group held positive attitudes towards CALL. Therefore, it is highly recommended that CALL should be fully integrated into TOEFL iBT preparation programmes.
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