students' motivations of english language learning in ...

Dellatola, E. and Daradoumis, T. (2016). Students’ motivations of English language learning in Greece in an era of financial crisis: empirical study of secondary school and university students’ perceptions. In proceedings of the 9th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2016), Seville, 14-16 November, 2016. IATED Academy, ISBN: 978-84-617-5895-1, pp. 39873994.

STUDENTS’ MOTIVATIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN GREECE IN AN ERA OF FINANCIAL CRISIS: EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS Eirini Dellatola1, Thanasis Daradoumis1,2 1

Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications, Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona (SPAIN) 2 Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of Aegean, Mytilini (GREECE)

Abstract Globalization of technology and employment are two essential factors in today’s network society; therefore, the use of a lingua franca is necessary. English has been playing this role for decades and is considered a powerful means of communication [1]. Particularly in Greece, English has long been an essential part of education and research has revealed many reasons why Greek students are motivated to learn it [2]. However, Greece has faced a harsh financial crisis recently and up to date is unable to overcome its problems. A large number of students, researchers and workforce have moved abroad in order to find better opportunities. Consequently, it is likely that the motivation of current Greek students to learn English has increased over the last decade due to their desire to study and work abroad. Moreover, the technological advances in education have played another important role in today’s English classrooms that may influence students’ motives. This study aims to unravel the young learners’ attitude to learn English in Greece in an era of financial crisis. For the data gathering procedure, a questionnaire is created that explores students’ motivation. The participants are fifty one students in Greek secondary schools or universities aged between 12 and 24 years old, who study English as a foreign language (EFL). The main results reflect that the economic crisis has little influence on students’ motives to learn English since students claim that – regardless of the economic situation - English has always played a dominant role for their future prospective. Keywords: English as a Foreign Language (EFL), English as an International Language (EIL), motivation, Greek economic crisis.

1

INTRODUCTION

Today’s network society is a global social structure and the notion of globalization consists of many different dimensions, such as economic, cultural, technological and political. Additionally, the globalization of science and technology along with employment are two essential factors in this new era of network society. Scientists, researchers, students and scientific employees not only travel and work in different countries, but also build networks of cooperation through the Internet all around the world. Consequently, the use of a lingua franca is necessary. English has been playing this role successfully for long time and is considered a powerful means of communication in the network society [1]. Particularly in Greece, English has long been an important part of education and there are many reasons why Greek students have been motivated to learn this language. According to Sougari & Hovhannisyan (2013), Greek students relate their future career success to the knowledge of English and the attainment of a certificate [2]. Other factors that may influence students towards learning English are societal pressure, parental influence and peer pressure. Since Greek is a language that is not widely spoken outside the country, students and particularly students’ parents feel that learning English is a must for their future career [3]. Moreover Greek learners are familiar with English due to great exposure to it through new technologies, music and films. Finally, some other studies have also revealed that students’ acknowledgement that English is an international language plays important role to their motivation to learn it [1], [4], [5], [6], [7]. However, the last decade many changes have occurred in Greece that may have influence students’ motivations towards English learning. First of all, due to globalization, the crisis of global capitalism that emerged throughout the world since 2008, affected the majority of the western countries and

Dellatola, E. and Daradoumis, T. (2016). Students’ motivations of English language learning in Greece in an era of financial crisis: empirical study of secondary school and university students’ perceptions. In proceedings of the 9th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2016), Seville, 14-16 November, 2016. IATED Academy, ISBN: 978-84-617-5895-1, pp. 39873994. particularly Greece. The latter faced the harshest impact and up to date struggles to overcome the serious problems that have been caused both in financial and social level. This crisis created major problems in Greek economy and influenced almost every activity in people’s life. This situation has led to the implementation of austere economical measures and as a result society now faces high rates of unemployment, emigration of a significant number of educated people and political dissatisfaction. Many companies have phased out since 2008 and as a consequence a great deal of students, researchers and scientific staff decided to move to other countries for better opportunities and standard of living [8]. At the same time, the socio-economic changes that have taken place in the society have posed new challenges to communities and families and have affected both students’ mental health and viewpoint of their future [9], [10]. The crisis contributed to the exacerbation of “brain drain” in Greece and an increasing number of adolescences are thinking of moving abroad nowadays. As a consequence, it is likely that the motivation of students to learn English has been influenced by the crisis and particularly being increased because of students’ desire to be able to study and work abroad in the future. According to this hypothesis the following research questions arise: RQ1: To what extent the economic crisis has changed Greek students’ motives to learn English? RQ2: To what extent are students aware of the phenomenon of globalization and its implications? RQ3: To what extent do students consider learning English as relevant to a better understanding of globalization? Another factor that is likely to influence students’ motivation is the implementation of technology in language classrooms. Nowadays, EFL teachers use technology frequently during their lessons to increase students’ participation and motivation. Many of the modern foreign language teaching methods promote the use of technology in the classroom to facilitate collaboration among students and Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) appears to have many benefits when implemented in language learning environments [11], [12]. However, there are studies that argue that the use of CSCL in classrooms may cause problems [13]. Consequently, the students’ attitude towards these new technologies has to be identified. RQ4: What is students’ impression regarding the new pedagogical practices and technological innovations (e.g. Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) adopted by private language centers? This study will try to answer to these questions by examining secondary school and university students’ perceptions regarding learning English. More specifically it will explore the relationship between English and the new demands of the so-called network society in the years of economic crisis.

2 2.1

METHOD Participants

The participants of this study were fifty one students in Greek secondary schools or universities who study English as a foreign language. The participants were aged between 12 and 24 years old and the majority of them were females. Due to time limitation the questionnaire was published through social sites and there was no possible way to control the sample. The majority of the students, though, live or come from a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea, Tinos. The first page of the questionnaire included some information related to the reasons of the study and was used as a consent of the participants who were also informed about the anonymity of the research. Table 1: Participants’ gender What is your gender; Answer Options

Response Percent

Response Count

Female

69,0%

29

Male

31,0%

13


2.2

answered question

42

skipped question

3

Procedure

An online questionnaire was created and uploaded for submission. The format of the questionnaire made use of a five point Likert type scale, which ranged from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5).The questions were divided into five categories each matching to a separate research question plus some personal details. The first part of the questions included some personal data questions, the second examined students’ motives to learn English, the third examined students’ motives related to financial crisis, the fourth their perception regarding English as a lingua franca, the fifth their impression regarding the pedagogical practices adopted by the private foreign language centres and how these may improve their learning experience. The questionnaire was originally submitted in Greek and a translated version of it in English is presented in the Appendix section.

3

RESULTS

The questionnaire was answered by fifty one subjects but only forty eight of them completed the whole of it. Besides, five students were above twenty five years old and for this reason they were excluded from the sample. Consequently, the final sample includes forty five subjects aged between twelve and twenty four years old by whom twenty nine were girls and thirteen boys and three refused to answer this question. The vast majority of the students have been learning English for more than four years and they were also been taught another foreign language. To the general question why they have decided to learn English as a foreign language the most popular answer was “Because it is going to help me to find a job in the future” while almost equally popular was the answer “Because it is an international language that everybody needs to know”. Additionally, many students choose the answer “Because I like travelling abroad” and “Because it is necessary for my future profession”. The least popular answer was “Because my parents force me to learn”. This trend shows that many students have combined English learning with their future profession and believe that knowing English is an essential skill for a citizen of today’s network society. Finally, very few students are influenced by an external motivation such as parental forcing.

Fig. 1: Students’ motives to learn English In the third section of the questionnaire students were asked questions about their motives in relation to the economic crisis. Even though students were able to recognize a more urgent need to learn a foreign language due to the crisis as it is shown in Fig. 2, they did not value high the possibility to move abroad in order to study or work.


People agreeing that it is necessary to know a foreign language due to economic crisis 13% 5%

Strongly disagree

Disagree a little

44%

Agree moderately

13%

Agree a lot Strongly agree

25%

Fig. 2: Percentage of people agreeing that it is necessary to know a foreign language due to economic crisis. Furthermore, they answered that the crisis has little influence in their family lives, whereas only eight of the subjects were absolutely positive that they have people in their family or acquaintances who have moved abroad because of the crisis. Table 2: Answers to the question if due to the crisis it is more possible to live abroad. Cumulative Frequency Valid

Strongly disagree

Percent

Valid Percent

Percent

9

20,0

20,0

20,0

10

22,2

22,2

42,2

Agree a lot

7

15,6

15,6

57,8

Agree a little

9

20,0

20,0

77,8

Agree moderately

10

22,2

22,2

100,0

Total

45

100,0

100,0

Strongly agree

Regarding students’ perception towards English as an international language, most of them valued high the importance of it in network society and indicated that it is probably due to new technologies that English hold such a powerful position as a lingua franca. Finally, concerning students’ impression regarding the pedagogical practices adopted by the private foreign language centres most of them answered that they do use new technologies in their classrooms and that they are pleased by the learning practices adopted. Also students strongly agreed that the process of learning a foreign language is facilitated by the use of modern technology and that this fact prepares them to integrate in the network society of the 21st century. Moving a step further with the data analysis and considering the correlation among the motives of learning English related to the economic crisis we can make some observations. First of all, as it was expected there is a high correlation between those who answered that it is possible to study abroad with those who think possible to live abroad. Moreover, those who have friends or relatives who have already moved abroad ranked higher the possibility to move abroad themselves. Finally, there is a correlation between learners who answered that their families’ life has been influenced by the crisis

Dellatola, E. and Daradoumis, T. (2016). Students’ motivations of English language learning in Greece in an era of financial crisis: empirical study of secondary school and university students’ perceptions. In proceedings of the 9th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2016), Seville, 14-16 November, 2016. IATED Academy, ISBN: 978-84-617-5895-1, pp. 39873994. and those who have relatives and friends abroad. These learners also recognize the high importance of knowing English due to the crisis. Table 3: Correlations of motives related to the economic crisis

Due to the crisis is Pearson more possible to live Correlation

There are

Because of

relatives or

the crisis my

Due to the

Because of

acquaintanc

family’s life

Due to the

crisis is

the crisis, it

es of mine

has

crisis is

more

is essential

who have

changed

more

possible to

to know a

moved

during the

possible to

study

foreign

abroad due

last six

live abroad.

abroad.

language.

to the crisis.

years.

**

,269

,344

*

,271

45

45

45

45

45

**

1

**

,171

45

45

45

45

45

**

1

,354

45

45

45

,354

*

1

45

45

45

**

1

45

45

1

,632

abroad. N Due to the crisis is Pearson more

possible

to Correlation

,632

**

,390

,404

study abroad. N Because of the crisis, Pearson it is essential to know Correlation

,269

,390

*

**

,392

a foreign language.. N There are relatives or Pearson acquaintances mine

who

of Correlation

45

,344

*

**

,404

45

**

,483

have

moved abroad due to N

45

45

,271

,171

45

45

the crisis. Because of the crisis Pearson my family’s life has Correlation

**

,392

,483

changed during the last six years.

4

N

45

DISCUSSION

The present study aimed at exploring Greek learners' perceptions of the relationship between English and globalization in the middle of the economic crisis in the country. As the results of the study indicated, students seem to be very little influenced by the economical crisis regarding their motivation of English learning. Even though, the majority of the students recognize the necessity of knowing a

Dellatola, E. and Daradoumis, T. (2016). Students’ motivations of English language learning in Greece in an era of financial crisis: empirical study of secondary school and university students’ perceptions. In proceedings of the 9th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2016), Seville, 14-16 November, 2016. IATED Academy, ISBN: 978-84-617-5895-1, pp. 39873994. foreign language and has always valued English learning highly as a helpful skill that will enable them to find a job in the future, very few seem influenced by the crisis itself or more willing to learn English in order to move abroad. Regarding technology implementation students are positive that the process of EFL learning is facilitated by the use of modern technology in the classroom. A large number of students are already using ICT during their lessons and they highly value it both regarding the learning process and their potentials to become citizens of the current network society. Consequently learners are generally in favour of the use of new technologies in the classrooms, such as CSCL. The current study, however, has several limitations that must be acknowledged mostly due to time limitation that led to a limited sample of students. Moreover, this study provided little information about students from different regions of Greece since by far the majority of the participants came from or lived on a small island of the Aegean Sea. Participants from the Greek mainland may have a different perception regarding the economic crisis and its influence on their motives to learn English. The above limitation suggest the need for further research in the field, including more students from different regions of Greece and more extensive sample of subjects that will enable the generalization of the results.

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank Prof. Yannis Dimitriadis (School of Telecommunications Engineering, University of Valladolid, Spain) and Prof. Gisela Grañena Gimeno (School of Languages, Open University of Catalonia, Spain) for their assistance and their general contribution within the global thesis procedure.

REFERENCES [1] AlQahtani, A., 2011. The significance of English language learning in contemporary Kuwait: Some empirical insights for economists of knowledge and educational planning. College Student Journal, pp.3–20. [2] Sougari, A.M. & Hovhannisyan, I., 2013. Delving into young learners’ attitudes and motivation to learn English : comparing the Armenian and the Greek classroom 1. , 4(1), pp.120–138. [3] Sifakis, N.C., 2009. Challenges in teaching ELF in the periphery: The Greek context. ELT Journal, 63(3), pp.230–237. [4] Friedrich, P., 2000. English in Brazil: functions and attitudes. World Englishes, 19(2), pp.215– 223. Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1467-971X.00170. [5] Matsuda, A., 2003. The Ownership of English in Japanese Secondary Schools. World Englishes, 22(4), pp.483–496. Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1467971X.2003.00314.x\nhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2003.00314.x. [6] McKenzie, R.M., 2010. The Social Psychology of English as a Global Language. Attitudes, Awareness and Identity in the Japanese Context. , (1). [7] Wang, Y. & Huang, F., 2013. Analysis of Learning Motivation in Foreign Language Acquisition. International Conference on the Modern Development of Humanities and Social Science (MDHSS 2013), (Mdhss), pp.159–162. [8] Harlan, C., 2015. The life of Greece’s young: When $50,000 of loans in America beats a life back home. Washington: WP Company LLC d/b/a, The Washington Post. Available at: http://0-search.proquest.com.cataleg.uoc.edu/docview/1695429637?accountid=15299 [9] Brouzos, A. et al., 2015. Secondary School Students’ Perceptions of Their Counselling Needs in an Era of Global Financial Crisis: An Exploratory Study in Greece. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, pp.168–178. [10] Zmas, A., 2014. Financial crisis and higher education policies in Greece: between intra- and supranational pressures. Higher Education, pp.495–508. [11] Oxford, R.L., 1997. Collaborative Cooperative Learning and Interaction : Three Learning, Communicative Strands in the Language Classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 81(4), pp.443–456.

Dellatola, E. and Daradoumis, T. (2016). Students’ motivations of English language learning in Greece in an era of financial crisis: empirical study of secondary school and university students’ perceptions. In proceedings of the 9th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2016), Seville, 14-16 November, 2016. IATED Academy, ISBN: 978-84-617-5895-1, pp. 39873994. [12] Wen, Y., Looi, C.-K. & Chen, W., 2009. Who are the Beneficiaries When CSCL Enters into Second Language Classroom. Global Chinese Conference on Computers in Education (GCCCE 2009), (January 2009). [13] Jung, I., Kudo, M. & Choi, S.K., 2012. Stress in Japanese learners engaged in online collaborative learning in English. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(6), pp.1016– 1029.

APPENDIX Questionnaire translated in English Page 1 - Introduction This questionnaire is part of a research project which is carried out by the doctoral student Eirini Dellatola for the doctoral research seminar “Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Network Society” of the Open University of Catalonia. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the motives of learning English as a Foreign Language of the Greek students have been influenced by the economic crisis. The questionnaire is anonymous. Your contribution is valuable! Thank you!

Page 2 - Personal Questions What is your gender?  Female  Male What is your age?  12-14  15-17  18-24  25 and above How long have you been learning English?  1-3  4-6  7 and above Apart from English, do you learn any other foreign language?  Yes  No What is your parents’ highest completed level of education?  Primary school  Middle School  High School  Technical Educational Institute (T.E.I.)  University (A.E.I)  Master’s Degree  Ph.D.


Page 3 – General students’ motives I learn English because… Strongly Disagree

Agree a little

Moderately agree

Agree a lot

Strongly agree

Agree a lot

Strongly agree

I like it as a language. I like the English culture. It is an international language that we all need to know. It broadens my horizons. I like meeting/ talking to foreigners. I like travelling abroad. It will help me find a job in the future. It is necessary for my future job. I intend to study abroad. I intend to live/work abroad. I have to obtain a certificate. My parents force me to learn.

Page 4 – Students’ motives related to the economic crisis How much do you agree with the following… Strongly Disagree Because of the crisis my family’s life has changed during the last six years. There are relatives or acquaintances of mine who have moved abroad due to the crisis. Because of the crisis, it is essential to know a foreign language.

Agree a little

Moderately agree

Dellatola, E. and Daradoumis, T. (2016). Students’ motivations of English language learning in Greece in an era of financial crisis: empirical study of secondary school and university students’ perceptions. In proceedings of the 9th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2016), Seville, 14-16 November, 2016. IATED Academy, ISBN: 978-84-617-5895-1, pp. 39873994. Due to the crisis, it is more possible to study abroad. Due to the crisis, it is more possible to live abroad.

Page 5 - English as a lingua franca How important role does English play in the global society?  Not important at all  A little important  Moderately important  Important  Very important For which of the following reasons do you think that English has become an international language?  It is easy to learn.  It is the mother tongue of many people all around the world.  The countries where English is native are wealthy and important ones.  The new technologies (e.g. computers, the Internet, etc) use English.  Another (define)

Page 6 – Current English learning practices How much do you agree with the following… Strongly Disagree I am satisfied with the English teaching practices that are used in my private foreign language center. In the classroom we use new technologies such as the Internet, Interactive White Board etc. New technologies facilitate the process of learning English. New technologies prepare me to become a citizen of the world.

Agree a little

Moderately agree

Agree a lot

Strongly agree