The impact of blended learning-based scaffolding techniques on learners’ self-efficacy and willingness to communicate

Abstract

 Motivating learners to engage in effective communication is one of the fundamental concerns of language education. Accordingly, an educational context where L2 learners display a willingness to communicate (WTC) is a requirement for successful learning. A further concept that should be studied regarding WTC is students' self-efficacy from the socio-cognitive theory. Moreover, to boost the quality of learning, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students should receive effective support, including scaffolding that motivates them to build up their knowledge in Blended Learning (BL) settings. To examine BL-based scaffolding techniques on students’ self-efficacy and WTC, this quasi-experimental design involving 232 participants were assigned to the experimental and the control groups including both intermediate and advanced learners. Subsequently, the self-efficacy questionnaire, and WTC questionnaires were distributed among them as a pretest. The statistical results of Two two-way ANCOVA tests showed that both language proficiency and the treatment type are the significant moderators of the efficacy scores. The experimental group outperformed the control group and the advanced learners outperformed the intermediate ones. In addition, the results indicated that while language proficiency did not moderate the WTC scores, the treatment type was the significant moderator of the WTC scores.