Motivational Design in Foreign Language Distance Learning

Abstract

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the forced transition to distance learning, one of the great challenges was to maintain students' motivation in learning activities. For this reason, we turned to the research motivating learning might apply to distance education.

The article describes Keller’s ARCS-V (an acronym for attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction, and volition) Model of Motivation applying to online training course "Foreign Language in Professional Activities" for students studying English and Spanish at the Engineering Academy of RUDN University. The research aims to develop effective approaches to keep students engaged and motivated in terms of distance learning technologies using Microsoft Teams platform.

The authors share their experience on conducting online lessons focusing on motivational design process and analyzing five key elements of the ARCS-V model implemented in distance foreign language learning completed with tools available on Microsoft Teams.

The survey, containing open-ended and close-ended questions, conducted among first, second, third and fourth-year students of the Engineering Academy of RUDN University indicates that their motivation depends a lot upon learning environment. The teaching materials developed after the Keller’s Model do influence the motivation of most students positively, especially for freshmen and second-year students. The study revealed that ARCS-V Motivation Model encourages most students’ motivation in distance learning, improves their language skills and reduces dropouts.

In this regard, teachers´ digital competencies required for online training courses are of particular importance. Therefore, the university community should properly plan systematic teacher training and education courses to be efficient in giving high quality online lessons.

The obtained results can be used in the practice of effective foreign language teaching to increase student engagement.