An Investigation into Korean University Students’ Task Motivation for Narrative Tasks inside and outside the Classroom

Abstract

The present study investigated the task motivation of 26 Korean university student leaners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The participants were given three communicative narrative speech tasks (a sequential set of pictures, a non-sequential set of pictures, and a user-generated set of pictures) across two modes of study; a classroom setting and outside of the classroom, through KakaoTalk (a Korean social networking app). Based on Boekaerts’ (2002) on-line motivation questionnaire, this study used self-report questionnaires to assess students’ self-appraisals of socio affective variables at the trait and situational task state levels. The aim was to explore whether Korean university students in mandatory English classes would be motivated to use social media to help bridge the gap between L2 use inside and outside of the classroom. Quantitative methods were used to analyse results, which showed that, despite some minor differences in motivation between students’ proficiency levels, all participants found user generated content tasks more enjoyable and motivating. The results have implications for language educators and for a social media task supported enhancement to textbook based courses.