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Exploring the effects of online learning on EFL learners' motivation, anxiety, and attitudes during the COVID-19 pandemic: a focus on Iran

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Peijun Jiang
Peijun Jiang
Peijun Jiang
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Ehsan Namaziandost
Ehsan Namaziandost
Ehsan Namaziandost
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Zeinab Azizi
Zeinab Azizi
Zeinab Azizi
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Mohammad Hasan Razmi at Yazd University
Mohammad Hasan Razmi
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Abstract

With the emergence and dissemination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the transformation of education to online classes, it is important to explore the effects of online learning on EFL learners' psychological factors in the Iranian EFL learners. Hence, this study aims to explore the effects of online learning on EFL learners' motivation, anxiety, and attitude. For this purpose, using a convenience sampling method, a total of 293 upper-intermediate EFL learners at Iran Language Institute in Ahvaz, Iran, took the Oxford Quick Placement Test, and 200 EFL learners whose scores fell around the mean were selected and assigned randomly to an experimental group and a control group. The participants' motivation, anxiety, and attitudes were measured before and after the treatments (lasting 10 one-hour sessions held once a week) using validated questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed through a one-way MANOVA test and a one-sample t-test. The findings evidenced that online learning positively affected the participants' motivation, anxiety, and attitudes. That is, due to the online learning, their motivation increased, their anxiety lowered, and positive attitudes were shaped toward L2 learning. Finally, based on the findings, some implications are proposed.
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-04013-x
Exploring theeffects ofonline learning onEFL learners’ motivation,
anxiety, andattitudes duringtheCOVID‑19 pandemic: afocus onIran
PeijunJiang1· EhsanNamaziandost2 · ZeinabAzizi3 · MohammadHasanRazmi4
Accepted: 5 November 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022
Abstract
With the emergence and dissemination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the transformation of education to online classes,
it is important to explore the effects of online learning on EFL learners’ psychological factors in the Iranian EFL learners.
Hence, this study aims to explore the effects of online learning on EFL learners’ motivation, anxiety, and attitude. For this
purpose, using a convenience sampling method, a total of 293 upper-intermediate EFL learners at Iran Language Institute in
Ahvaz, Iran, took the Oxford Quick Placement Test, and 200 EFL learners whose scores fell around the mean were selected
and assigned randomly to an experimental group and a control group. The participants’ motivation, anxiety, and attitudes
were measured before and after the treatments (lasting 10 one-hour sessions held once a week) using validated question-
naires. The collected data were analyzed through a one-way MANOVA test and a one-sample t-test. The findings evidenced
that online learning positively affected the participants’ motivation, anxiety, and attitudes. That is, due to the online learning,
their motivation increased, their anxiety lowered, and positive attitudes were shaped toward L2 learning. Finally, based on
the findings, some implications are proposed.
Keywords Online learning· Motivation· Anxiety· Attitude· The COVID-19 pandemic· EFL learners
Introduction
Several factors are involved in learning English as a sec-
ond language (L2); the most important factors are psycho-
logical attributes (Haidara, 2016; Hashemifardnia etal.,
2021) including attitude, aptitude, intelligence, anxiety, and
motivation (Qureshi etal., 2020; Rahimi & Fathi, 2021).
Among these factors, motivation is the key factor affecting
L2 learners’ achievement (Derakhshan etal., 2021; Ehrman
& Oxford, 1995; Gradman & Hanania, 1991; Gardner &
MacIntyre, 1991; O’malley & Chamot, 1990; Pawlak etal.,
2021; Riding & Cheema, 1991). Harmer (2007) defines
motivation as “the dynamically changing cumulative inter-
nal drives in people that initiate, direct, coordinate, amplify,
terminate, and evaluate the cognitive and motor processes”
(p. 98). By these drives, initial wishes and desires are cho-
sen, prioritized, operationalized, and successfully or unsuc-
cessfully acted out. Motivation is also characterized as
an internal drive that pushes people to do things to reach
their intended goals (Harmer, 2007; Melhe etal., 2021).
As pointed out by Brown (2000), motivation is a construct
applied to indicate the success or failure of challenging
tasks.
Another psychological factor influencing L2 learning
is anxiety. It refers to “the subjective feelings of tensions,
apprehensions, nervousness, and worries concerned with an
arousal of the autonomic nervous systems (Dörnyei, 2011).
According to Zhang (2001), language anxiety is the psycho-
logical tension that L2 learners go through in conducting
* Ehsan Namaziandost
e.namazi75@yahoo.com
Peijun Jiang
2011001695@hnit.edu.cn
Zeinab Azizi
zeinab.azizi@abru.ac.ir
Mohammad Hasan Razmi
hasanrazmi2000@gmail.com
1 School of International Studies, Hunan Institute
ofTechnology, Hengyang, China
2 Department ofGeneral Courses, Ahvaz Jundishapur
University ofMedical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
3 Department ofTeaching English andLinguistics, Faculty
ofLiterature andHumanities, Ayatollah Borujerdi University,
Borujerd, Iran
4 Kerman University ofMedical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
/ Published online: 18 November 2022
Current Psychology (2023) 42:2310–2324
1 3
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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