Investigating Mediational Process in Online Foreign Language Learning

Abstract

Faced with Covid-19 pandemic, the higher learning institutions across the planet continue to conduct classes for students via online learning. Educators impart knowledge using the latest technology at their disposition. These educators have to ensure that the online classes are engaging will lead to new understanding. Online classes can be stressful for some students and less motivating for others. It is crucial to identify the ideal online learning setting for foreign language learning as it can encourage students to actively participate in class. This quantitative research is conducted to investigate meditational process in online foreign language learning classes. The instrument used is a survey adapted from Arbaugh, Cleveland-Innes, Diaz, Ice, Richardson & Swan (2008). The survey consists of 34 items, is given to 163 bachelor degree students taking French as a third language in a public university in Malaysia.. The data is collected online via the Google Form and it is then analyzed using SPSS. The analysis from the data collected shows that teaching presence has the highest sum of mean, followed by cognitive presence and social presence. For teacher presence, the findings reveal that the instructors communicate the course design and its organization to the students clearly. In addition, the study shows that the instructors facilitate the learning process and give feedback to the students in a timely manner. For cognitive presence, the findings reveal that students could integrate new information to answer questions, use learning activities to construct explanations and use reflections and discussions to understand fundamental concepts in online classes. As for social presence, it is discovered through this study that it has the lowest sum of mean, especially regarding group cohesion. Therefore a future research focusing on how to improve group cohesion would be interesting and beneficial for the betterment of online foreign language learning classes.