Senior High School Students’ Readiness and Motivation to Learn English Using Synchronous Video Conferences

Abstract

Aim/Purpose: This study aimed at exploring students’ online-learning exposures involving their readiness and motivation to learn English using synchronous video conferences, as well as investigating the possible relationship between the readiness and motivation. To fulfill these objectives, three research questions were formed: (1) What is students’ readiness to learn English using synchronous video conferences? (2) What is students’ motivation to learn English using synchronous video conferences? (3) Is there any correlation between students’ readiness and their motivation to learn English using synchronous video conferences? Background: Due to the urgency of Covid-19 pandemic in the educational field, the Indonesian Minister of Education requested that all schooling activities must be conducted online as announced in the Learning from Home Policy starting on March 24, 2020. In this case, students are forced to struggle with the unfamiliar and challenging learning situations that their readiness and motivation to learn are worth questioning. Methodology: The participants in this descriptive research, combining both a survey and correlation study, were 116 Indonesian high schoolers. They came from two different private schools as the particular adaptive curriculum has been reshaped and implemented in each school during this pandemic. In order to collect the data of students’ readiness and motivation while they were learning English using synchronous video conferences, an online Likert-Scale questionnaire was distributed to all participants. Furthermore, a semi-structured interview was conducted to dig deeper into students’ online-learning exposures. Contribution: The results of this study can become reference to create the effective and successful online learning environment. This study offers fresh and genuine insights coming from students on how ready and motivated they were within the unfamiliar learning situations. Besides, the obstacles faced by students are also presented. Three pillars were used to construct the questionnaire and to analyze the findings: 1) Four Online Readiness Factors, 2) ARCS Model of Motivation, and 3) the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework. Hence, the findings of this research can also expand educators’ and researchers’ knowledge whether the readiness and motivation can be improved through the three frameworks. Findings: This study shows how students’ readiness and motivation are influenced by unfamiliar situations of synchronous online learning. Firstly, students are already confident with their technical skills and their familiarity with the use of technology. However, their readiness in terms of self-discipline is the lowest. Secondly, students’ motivation cannot be consistently high because of two drawbacks that demotivated them within their online learning. Furthermore, this study also found that there is significant positive correlation between readiness and motivation. Hence, the readiness and motivation factors cannot be simply ignored within the online learning progress. Recommendations for Practitioners: As our findings reveal, Teacher Presence is important as it enhances Cognitive Presence and supports students to experience Social Presence. Therefore, the roles of teachers that cover designing and providing meaningful learning activities, acting as a model to engage students in online discussion, employing effective strategies to deliver direct instruction and managing class, should be completely fulfilled. Instead of consistently sustaining the teacher-centered style, teachers may sharpen their technical skills along with their pedagogical knowledge. Online learning can be effective as teachers could design and implement the student-centered learning style in synchronous virtual meetings. Recommendation for Researchers: Learning from Home is a new policy that was published because of the Covid-19 pandemic urgency. The learning process happening in a synchronous virtual environment is new for both Indonesian teachers and students. Accordingly, more researchers in this topic involving a wider level of students coming from rural and urban areas are still needed. Impact on Society: By showing how students’ readiness and motivation are influenced in the online learning process, this study offers a reference that students can have better opportunities of an effective and successful online-learning environment. This study also discusses the obstacles mostly faced by students. Following the frameworks used, this study also gives an opportunity for educators to expand their knowledge to take part in solving any problems related to the investigated issues. Future Research: As technology must still be developing and online learning is possibly sustained closely after the pandemic, its development must be continuing. As the idea of online learning through synchronous meetings is new, issues related to this learning situation can still be investigated so that Indonesian teachers can gradually create more effective and successful online learning.