What Drives a Successful Web-based Language Learning Environment? An Empirical Investigation of the Critical Factors Influencing College Students’ Learning Satisfaction

Abstract

With a great potential for enriching and vivifying all kinds of educational applications, web-based instruction is becoming a progressively more impressive apparatus for language learning resource delivering around the world. In this study, a web- based language learning (WBLL) system was employed to support college students’ English as foreign language (EFL) learning. Based on the concepts of social cognitive theory (SCT), this study proposes a conceptual model that examines the determinants of college students’ learning satisfaction in a web-based language learning environment. The model is validated using a cross-sectional survey of 306 college students. The partial least squares (PLS) method was applied to validate the measurement properties and proposed hypotheses. The empirical findings demonstrate that college students show positive incline towards the use of the web-based language learning system for EFL courses and signify a possible benefit from its use in the long run. The results can provide insight into those factors that are likely significant antecedents for planning and implementing a web-based language learning system to enhance student learning satisfaction.