http://dx.doi.org/10.35381/racji.v7i1.1700

 

Teaching English as a foreign language to rural education students

 

Enseñanza de Inglés como lengua extranjera a estudiantes de educación rural

 

 

 

 

 

Juan Carlos López-Obregón

juan.lopez.35@est.ucacue.edu.ec

Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Cuenca, Cuenca

Ecuado

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7295-7069

 

Tania Alexandra Rodas-Auquilla

trodasa@ucacue.edu.ec

Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Cuenca, Cuenca

Ecuador

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6883-3047

 

 

 

 

 

Recibido: 15 de octubre 2021

Revisado: 10 de diciembre 2021

Aprobado: 15 de enero 2022

Publicado: 01 de febrero 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to focus on the perspectives, problems, and suggestions of rural EFL teachers while teaching English to students in rural areas. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the factors affecting students' motivation to learn English in the rural area of Ponce Enriquez. The technique used was a survey. The primary outcome was to understand from the students' perceptions the elements that impact the lack of motivation and the value of learning a foreign language. In addition, this study found that the main obstacles faced by EFL teachers in rural locations were students' low enthusiasm for learning English. As a result, the participants made joint recommendations to English teachers in rural areas.

 

Descriptors: Language of instruction; rural education; educational systems. (UNESCO Thesaurus).

 

 

 

RESUMEN

El propósito de este estudio fue enfocarse sobre las perspectivas, los problemas y las sugerencias de los profesores rurales de EFL mientras enseñan inglés a los estudiantes en las zonas rurales. Este estudio transversal tuvo como objetivo identificar los factores que afectan la motivación de los estudiantes para aprender inglés en el área rural de Ponce Enríquez. La técnica utilizada fue una encuesta. El resultado primario fue entender a partir de las percepciones de los estudiantes los elementos que impactan la falta de motivación y el valor de aprender un idioma extranjero. Además, este estudio descubrió que los principales obstáculos a los que se enfrentan los profesores de EFL en las localidades rurales eran el escaso entusiasmo de los estudiantes por aprender inglés. Como resultado, los participantes hicieron recomendaciones conjuntas a los profesores de inglés de las zonas rurales.

 

Descriptores:  Idioma de enseñanza; educación rural; sistema educativo. (Tesauro UNESCO).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Despite decade-long efforts to reform the teaching of English in Ecuador, it remains one of the two Latin American countries with the lowest level of English language proficiency, only above Mexico. The score is 440 out of 1000, according to the (EF English Proficiency Index, 2021). Hence the importance of carrying out this investigation to propose viable alternatives to previous efforts that have not provided positive results.

Ecuador has been developing a strong national identity since its economy started showing vigorous development by oil production and a democratic government. In the years before, the country had seen periods of political and economic upheaval, alternating between military rule and democracy. Today, Ecuador is pursuing stability by diversifying away from oil into new priority sectors, such as tourism, and is investing vigorously in education, too. The current government has identified the need for English language learning as a key factor in raising the country’s profile and increasing its status on the international stage. Furthermore, English is also viewed favorably nationwide, as it is associated with wealth and better employment prospects.

Knowing English is no longer a privilege as it is now a global language, and many countries are adopting it as a second language. Today at the workplace, more and more companies hire people who speak this language, whereby we even negotiate internationally through English to meet the growing global demand for effective communication.

Other sectors where we get involved with this foreign language are in networking and gaining access to information. The increasing use of the English language in all spheres of life demands that the next generation become experts in the use of the English language, not only in its written form but also in oral communication. It is used as a tool and means towards diverse goals, for example, in entertainment, such as online games or virtual tools, and finally, in education.

Globally, many researchers are still working hard on the study of languages and how they can be learnt. For research concerned particularly with foreign language acquisition, it is important to note the differences between individuals, their diverse ways of learning languages and the different environments in which learning takes place, and the influence of social-cultural characteristics on the students in the teaching and learning process of a foreign language.

The teacher must not only teach the subject but must guide and motivate the learning of the students while he/she is required to investigate, in such a way that the quality of the teaching-learning process can be continuously improved and thus prepare students to function in a globalized and competitive world.

Based on the experience of the teacher-researcher of the article, there is a need for research on teaching English as a Foreign Language focusing on the lack of motivation and awareness about the importance of English. In this vein, the main objective is to identify the potential causes for the lack of motivation or interest in learning a Foreign Language in rural area students from Divino Niño High School. The specific objectives are as follows:

 

Research question and/or hypothesis

What are the potential causes for the lack of motivation or interest in learning a Foreign Language in rural area students from Camilo Ponce Enriquez?

 

Research objectives

General

To identify the factors affecting students’ motivation in learning English language in Ponce Enriquez rural area.

 

Specific

To identify the intrinsic motivational factors that affect the learning of English in students.

To identify possible socio-educational and cultural factors that may influence the development of students with regard to their advancement as learners of English.

 

 

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

There has been a spread of teaching approaches in foreign languages for at least the last six decades. Their primary goal has been to ensure systematic and efficient acquisition of the target language they have been exposed to. These approaches are primarily concerned with the resources to be used, the features of the language to be studied, and the abilities that foreign language learners are expected to acquire. Despite the substantial quantity of research conducted on FLL, little is known about the impact of educational psychology in determining learner success or failure (Idri, 2009).

This article discusses how to engage passive learners in the class and how to make it active. Different methods of motivation for kids with little interest will be explained. The exercises will assist teachers in encouraging all pupils to be proud of their accomplishments. Because most students want to impress their instructor, it is the teacher's responsibility to encourage all pupils to be proud of their achievements and boost their self-esteem. As a result, the learner continues to exert maximal effort and achieves more personal accomplishment. Teachers should include them in group projects or other ways to develop pupils' critical thinking abilities. Some youngsters are highly driven, while others are quite competitive and love achieving more than their classmates (Kazina-Nagashibaevna, 2019).

The amount of time spent learning English does not ensure success. There are several obstacles to achieving successful levels of English language competency. These span from linguistic patterns, cultural variances in the language, and political restrictions on foreign languages, to learner differences and teaching approaches (Nandi, 2021). Cooperative learning refers to a number of instructional strategies in which students cooperate in small groups to assist one another in acquiring academic topics. Students in suitable classes are encouraged to help one another, debate and dispute with one another, assess one another's present knowledge, and fill gaps in one another's understanding (Chen, 2021).

Students with poor self-efficacy are more likely to be involved in disciplinary issues at school. Self-efficacy, which is centered on the mind, serves to manage the human discipline's focus. As a result, self-efficacy has the power to influence human actions and behaviors. On the contrary, based on this remark, self-efficacy might be proposed as a significant aspect and the root cause of disciplinary issues. As a result, it is critical to research students' self-efficacy and its link to discipline problems among students (Sawari et al.  2015).

Because excellent learning depends on one's learning style, learning style is very significant in education. The totality of an individual's preferences for physical, social, emotional, and environmental variables in the course of learning is referred to as learning style. Individual preferences for responding to a stimulus or information in a learning scenario are learning styles. A student's learning style is simply the method through which he knows best. Every individual learns in their unique way, which is referred to as their learning style. A learning style may also be defined as a combination of characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes that assist learning for a person in a particular setting. Knowing a student's learning style allows teachers to help them study more effectively, a teacher can employ instructional approaches that maximize student learning (Singh, 2020).

 

LITERATURE REVIEW

When considering that learning should ideally be a lifelong process, the question of the learner striving to excel academically on his own is very significant. Learning for the sake of learning can be beneficial to the student, community, and society. The learner, educator, parents, and administration are all responsible for bringing forth the learning capacities and possibilities at home, community, and school (Sheldon & Turner-Vorbeck, 2019). The establishment of a baseline of perceived intrinsic motivation as it pertains to academic accomplishment can be used by the schools surveyed to become aware of positive and negative aspects so that corrections can be made. Intrinsic motivation is the drive that keeps students interested in completing academic tasks for the sake of doing so (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2013).

The findings are interpreted as indicating that brief motivational strategies can improve the performance of problem students, and that the effect of any such strategy is directly related to both its potency and the degree to which it is implemented (Dang, 2021). These constructs are woven into a working schema to distinguish between reactive and proactive intentional misbehavior (Adelman & Taylor, 2003).

The primary factor influencing a child's motivation is the child's worldview. The response will be determined by the learner's schema and world perception. Humans have a tendency to react differently when they are at different levels of autonomy to compensate for the difference in height; for example, a person with more power, the ability to transform a situation, such as a knight on a chessboard, will have different behavior or ways of moving than a pawn (Mikhalkina & Skachkova, 2021).

Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in rural areas or regions has lately gained great importance, especially in developing countries (Cuervo, 2020). The demand for English as an international language makes countries where English is taught as a Foreign Language (EFL) pay more attention to providing continuous improvements in ELT practices in rural regions. However, the problems of rural regions in general, including the case of ELT, have raised similar issues, such as the lack of supplementary teaching materials and facilities, lack of teachers, low proficiency levels and methodological skills of teachers, and very limited or even zero access to technology for learning, just to name a few. Unfortunately, these problems can lead to unfavorable attitudes to EFL exhibited by rural learners for learning English on account of the lack of language input(s) and exposure(s) (Saiful & Triyono, 2018).

When learning the English language, students must be able to learn some skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as grammar, pronunciation, and so on. Learning English is not confined to the classroom, it can take place at home or other places. Sometimes, students do not have enough time to learn English at school and this makes it difficult for the students to understand the subject matter (Amin, 2018). Because of these challenges, it is important that teachers use the most effective methodology and, as a result, engage and motivate their learners. One way of engaging students more effectively is using Blended Learning (Sulisworo, 2018).

English learning and teaching should be contextualized. Government policies could be centered according to the context where the public and private schools are located. How do children learn their mother tongue (L1)? Some of the ways of how L1 is acquired can be useful in learning a second/foreign language, even though there are marked differences. For example, we learn by imitating anything that is important to us (Stavrou, 2020) We need to remember that parents and kids develop strategies that permit children to acquire the language of their significant others.

Some factors such as family, social, cultural and economic environment influence and take part in the process of learning/teaching. The family context is the first place where all this knowledge appears in order to be acquired and then reinforced (James, 2011). From conception, a human baby starts this process and while he/she is growing up his/her brain begins to process all these pieces of information. The second context is the school, where all this knowledge appears selected according to the purpose of the subject or area of study. And as a result of the above, the social context, where the learner is going to put everything learned into practice, is only possible through interaction.

In our public and private schools, we can find students that want to learn and take part in the English class, because they know how important this language is for their future life (Solak, 2015). Nevertheless, there are students for whom English is unimportant, it is simply a subject that they need to pass to move up to the next grade or graduate.

The Teachers' National Organization (UNE), rose to prominence as a political force, demanding higher pay and job security. During this time, Ecuador grew increasingly reliant on international money to manage education programs, resulting in internal conflict among government agencies. As the country accelerated its transition to a free-market economy in the 1990s, the education system came into sharp focus as its graduates were shown to be mainly unsuitable to the new demands of industry. So, there is the difference between urban and rural areas, that is, due to government policies on education, there has been little interest in providing well-trained teachers in rural areas, while in urban areas (the existence has been notorious) opportunities were created in abundance, including training programs for teachers and students (British Council, 2015).

Another key aspect impacting English language acquisition in Ecuador is engagement with international partners through foreign direct investment in governmental and private initiatives, such as dam construction by Chinese partners. The transfer of technology and expertise through international collaboration was a key component of the 2009-2013 Good Living Plan, and the government is eager to promote it as it seeks to expand its export market and enhance its worldwide reputation. While connections with the United States are naturally stronger due to geographical proximity and market familiarity, English is considered as a method of expanding into new areas where English is not necessarily the original language but is the recognized lingua franca. English language abilities are regarded as an important draw factor for overseas investors. Similarly, English has been identified as being vital for increasing the worldwide exposure of significant, high-potential economic sectors such as agriculture; this might have the twin effect of increasing human capital as well as overall economic circumstances in rural regions (British Council, 2015).

Ecuador is a bilingual, multicultural country with indigenous people, blacks, mestizos, and many minorities. This poses a barrier for national education reforms and English language learning programs. This is being addressed through the representation of regional and local governments, as well as the expansion of private schooling in rural regions. International education organizations such as World Teach, which provides free English language lessons through rural universities, are also targeting these areas. Exposure to and demand for English language learning is expected to grow in more remote areas as companies in fields such as computer programming seek to establish bases outside of major cities (British Council, 2015).

Motivation is one of the foremost imperative components within the satisfaction and victory in learning any subject, particularly a remote dialect. Numerous understudies approach the learning of a dialect based on scholarly orders, family burdens, work necessities, and so on. These non-intrinsic inspirations make learning a more troublesome, baffling, and non-pleasurable involvement, both for understudies and instructors. In this manner, aptitudes in propelling learners ought to be seen as central to instructing viably. In this article, we offer an arrangement of techniques for instructors to steadily lead understudies from an outward inspiration to a more internal and independent inspiration. This approach is surrounded inside one of the foremost later and well-known speculations of inspiration: self-determination hypothesis (Muñoz-Restrepo et al. 2020).

Learning a new language entails more than just memorizing grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Every day, 21st century society confidently transcends borders, investigating the most secret regions of our world and introducing changes even into the classroom. Successful cross-cultural communication necessitates culturally aware communicators who respond properly in a particular social situation, demonstrate empathy, tolerance, and openness to other communicators. Teaching a foreign language entail preparing your students for real-life circumstances that they may experience when visiting the United States, such as avoiding being misunderstood, embarrassed, or excluded from conversation.

 Language education's purpose is not native speaker proficiency in the target language. Rather, it is via cultural assimilation that students' intercultural communication competency is being developed. Culturally-based teaching practice connects language to its natural counterpart, culture, increases motivation, and builds intercultural competency in learners, allowing them to perceive and explain culturally-induced behaviors correctly (Fan & Derivry-Plard, 2021).

 

METHODOLOGY

The present research follows a constructivist paradigm that outlines how students can make sense of the information as well as how the subject may be taught successfully. With constructivism as an educational paradigm in mind, instructors should consider what their pupils know and allow them to put their knowledge into practice (Jafari-Amineh, 2015), which is going to follow the descriptive explanatory design with a qualitative methodology because it’s measured, interpreted and/or analyzed the students' perceptions about the factors that positively and negatively affect the learning of English as a foreign language, that is, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, socioeconomic and sociocultural factors.

To carry out this survey, all the details were reported to the students and their parents, although no method of consent was required for the latter, since one of the characteristics of the questionnaire was that it could have been filled out anonymously. This study sought to gain insights into students’ perceptions of their competence levels using knowledge of English and how their culture or environment influenced their motivation, and the survey technique was used because this gave me the information that was required for the project; within it, a questionnaire was administered to the students.

 

Participants

There were 42 students (male and female). To choose the sample, the Stratified Sampling Method was used, since the population was first divided into 6 groups (from 8th EGB grade to 3rd BGU course), then the final sample was made up of 7 members of each group, with 2 missing participants. Members of each group were chosen randomly.

 

Instrument

This survey technique used the questionnaire as its medium of instrument. 5-point Likert scale was employed to rate the questions ranging from ‘Strongly Agree’ to ‘Strongly Disagree’. Some of the questionnaire items were adopted from (Wimolmas, 2013) Survey of Motivation. There were 32 main items in the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of four parts: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, socioeconomic and sociocultural factors. The Cronbach’s Alpha was used to be able to demonstrate the reliability of the document. Cronbach's alpha is a coefficient with numbers ranging from 0 to 1. The closer it is to the number 1, the greater the reliability of the underlying instrument. A negative result that appears in a table or graph denotes a high degree of internal inconsistency of the examination to such an extent that the calculation of alpha is not justified (Oviedo & Campos,  2005).

 

 

Table 1.

Questionnaire validity.

 

Source: Field research.

 

 

In this process “p” value is 0.98, which means that the questionnaire has a high validity to be able to carry out the research work. This can be verified with the approximation to the use of Cronbach's alpha coefficient (Oviedo & Campos, 2005). This information led us to realize that the survey was successful in demonstrating the factors that affect the motivation to learn or not learn English as a foreign language.

 

Data Collection

The questionnaire was distributed to the 40 participants during their free time. The researcher distributed it in order to avoid any confusion which they would explain the instructions and clarify any possible doubts. Before proceeding with the questionnaire, information was given to the school authorities and students’ parents.

 

Data Analysis

The data obtained from the questionnaires will be analyzed by using ‘Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive analysis was then employed to find out the answer on the questions about motivation and preferred activities and the students' perception of the context, or how the teacher's work influences them with the activities inside and outside the classroom.

 

 

RESULTS

The participants denote two types of factors that negatively and positively affect the motivation to learn English. Next, we can see with tables from SPSS software that it is generally intrinsic factors that positively affect student motivation, while extrinsic factors do the opposite.

The analysis of the students’ background resulted in the sociocultural aspect, that in their homes their parents have mostly only reached high school and for this reason there is no solid awareness of the importance of learning a foreign language, nor is there practice English as a way to encourage learning. So, as a result, the low level of English (A1-A2) in most of the participants. On the other hand, as a socioeconomic factor, we found that the majority of the families of these students are dedicated to trade, agriculture, and mining, with English being a very important factor to take into account when relating it to these economic activities.

Table 2.

Intrinsic motivation – likes and dislikes.

 

Source: Field research.

 

In this part, the participants show that there is a great acceptance of the English subject as such (67.5%) against a few who do not like the subject (2.5%). Education does not begin at school but at home, and it is the parents who must instill these learning values (Sheldon & Turner-Vorbeck, 2019). This is the hope that teachers have to continue improving the teaching techniques and that the student likes English as a foreign language.

Table 3.

Intrinsic motivation – interests.

 

Source: Field research.

 

It was shown that although there is little disinterest in the English language (2.5%), there is also a great interest in learning new topics related to the English subject (57.5%). Intrinsic motivation is the drive that keeps students interested in completing academic tasks for the sake of doing so (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2015). We must continue to make our classes more dynamic to attract more student interest and become proactive.

 

Table 4.

Intrinsic motivation – confidence.

 

 

Source: Field research.

 

Good confidence in learning topics in English (45%) is denoted against a group of participants who believe that it will be difficult for them to learn basic and advanced topics (15%). it is the teacher's responsibility to encourage all pupils to be proud of their achievements and boost their self-esteem (Kazina-Nagashibaevna, 2019). We must lower the affective filter to unlock student learning.

 

Table 5.

Intrinsic motivation – autonomy.

 

Source: Field research.

 

This is a very relevant issue since 72.5% of the participants seek to educate themselves, and this shows that there is an interest in the language. Student autonomy should be encouraged to improve their productivity in class (Mikhalkina & Skachkova, 2021).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 6.

Intrinsic motivation – awareness.

 

Source: Field research.

 

52.5% of participants are aware that part of academic success lies in the need to learn or acquire a second language, against a small 5% who say no. Constructivism outlines how students can make sense of the information as well as how the subject may be taught successfully (Jafari-Amineh, 2015). It is a reality that when you acquire and/or learn a foreign language you have more and better possibilities in academic and professional life.

Table 7.

Extrinsic motivation – values and principles.

 

Source: Field research.

 

 

The interest or motivation of the student comes from home too, and there are 62.5% of participants who totally agree with this. Education does not begin at school but at home, and it is the parents who must instill these learning values (Sheldon & Turner-Vorbeck, 2019). The great importance of sowing in our children good values and awareness of improving knowledge.

 

Table 8.

Extrinsic motivation – importance.

 

Source: Field research.

 

This question shows that, despite being interested in learning a foreign language, there is currently no motivation to do so (92.5%). This leads us to analyze different methodologies and teaching techniques to motivate the student to learn English accurately. English instructors should have or develop strong and positive personalities. In other words, they must be disciplined, creative, inventive, patient, firm, and adaptive (Saiful & Triyono, 2018).

 

 

 

 

Table 9.

Socioeconomic factor – mining activity.

 

 

Source: Field research.

 

Mining activity is very relevant in the sector where the survey was carried out and for this reason there is the idea that this activity is the only or the most important source of economic income there is. But with this survey we are showing that this foundation is far from reality in as much as 42.5% of the students believe that there are other income sources (British Council, 2015).

 

Correlations

This analysis helped us to regulate the existence of potential mistakes in the data input phase in order to repair them after we have entered the data. Furthermore, we were able to investigate whether variables have missing values and how the lack of data may affect the analysis and results of this research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 12.

Spearman Correlations - factors positively affecting EFL learning motivation.

 

 

Source: Field research.

 

When crossing the variables to test association, the Spearman Correlation was applied where it is evident that there are no negative values, which means that all these variables that we have found are the factors that positively affect the motivation of EFL learning. We used this function to see whether there is a linear relationship between two variables at the ordinal level and if the relationship is not due to chance; that is, if the relationship is statistically significant.

 

 

Table 13.

Spearman Correlations – factors negatively affecting EFL learning motivation.

 

Source: Field research.

 

When crossing the variables to test association, the Spearman Correlation was applied where it is evident that these factors distract the student's attention, which means that all these variables that we have found are the factors that negatively affect the motivation of EFL learning. We used this function to see whether there is a linear relationship between two variables at the ordinal level and if the relationship is not due to chance; that is, if the relationship is statistically significant.

 

PROPOSAL

The idea for English instructors based on teaching in rural areas, particularly in Camilo Ponce Enrquez city, was discovered in three areas. When teachers want to teach English, the first one is connected to the "subject of learning". The second was on "teachers' attitudes" when teaching kids English. The final one dealt with the language used by instructors, sometimes known as "teachers talk", when teaching English in the classroom. Teaching reflection is a motivator for EFL instructors to self-reflect or analyze their teaching techniques, as well as a means for teachers to share their teaching experiences.

Its purpose is to help instructors understand the progression of the teaching-learning process, so that they could make necessary modifications in methodology, assessment, and instruction.

According to the findings of this study paper, students may have a better understanding of the process of English learning, the characteristics of learners, and the settings or variables that influence ELT practices. Participants, for example, demonstrate the aspects that positively and adversely impact the desire to study English according to the results. They claim that the TEFL to rural students require creativity and patience. The first is inventiveness; owing to a scarcity of learning resources and media, kids use internet applications such as LiveWorksheets to apply what they have learned at school.

The initial hurdles for students are lack of enthusiasm, lack of information of the English language, and lack of comprehension. Students express their concern about a lack of motivation. They claim that pupils are unmotivated to study English because they feel the language is unimportant to them. Otherwise, it was discovered that pupils are disinterested in studying since English learning resources such as dictionaries, novels, and so on are few.

This first obstacle is essentially consistent with the overall challenge in rural education as documented in recent research, which stated that a lack of supplemental teaching resources and facilities is a key concern in rural education, including the domain of ELT. The following remarks are relevant to the initial students' lack of motivation challenge: "Students' motivation in studying English is still low because they feel learning English is not important for them." "No, they don't enjoy studying English." However, a lack of resources, such as a book, dictionary, and so on, makes them less motivated."

 Aside from students' lack of enthusiasm, pupils' lack of English language skills and understanding has also been a difficulty. In the case of this article investigation, these two concerns are present. This is due to a shortage of learning resources or books, which forces pupils to rely largely on teachers. Not only do pupils lack information, but they also have slow comprehension of English learning topics, even when they are easy, such as reading (Saiful & Triyono, 2018).

Also, their grammar and reading skills could improve. However, to students, their interaction with instructors should increase so they can answer their questions and strengthen their speaking and writing skills. Another aspect that should be enhanced is the inclusion of more interactive videos or audios that can help them improve their pronunciation, including software that can recognize their voice and verify their pronunciation.

Students identified three sorts of environmental elements that will impact their success: student traits (independent, self-learners, disciplined), time management abilities (organized, manage time, prevent procrastination), and course adaptability. (curriculum is available 24/7, this allows them to study while fulfilling their obligations). The only aspect they did not mention was the importance of the support from others. Fourth, in addition, they consider that the instructor's technology knowledge causes tremendous impact on the success of the course.

Then, according to the data found thanks to the survey and the SPSS software, the factors that positively and negatively affect the motivation of EFL learning are taken into account to maximize and improve the methodology and techniques of the teacher inside and outside the classroom, that is, with playful, interactive and meaningful activities that encourage the student's attention and cooperative work, as well as the use of excellent digital tools in order to occupy the ELL's free time at home in productive activities. We can even assure that all these activities will help the ELL reduce the affective filter, so that they lose the fear of asking when they don't know and thus learn new basic and advanced English concepts. In this way, we achieve that the ELL considerably improves their motivation and interest in English and therefore their knowledge of the foreign language.Diagrama Descripción generada automáticamente

 

CONCLUSIONS

Once a bivariate correlation was made, it was possible to obtain those elements that are favorable for learning EFL, and also those factors that negatively affect student motivation. With these data it was possible to indicate that these elements directly favor learning, while others do not. The important thing about the methodology is that the entire process could be explained and argued with real data in order to have obtained this important analysis of the article.

This is the hope that teachers have to continue improving the teaching techniques and that the student likes English as a foreign language. We must continue to make our classes more dynamic to attract more student interest and become proactive. We must lower the affective filter to unlock student learning. Student autonomy should be encouraged to improve their productivity in class. It is a reality that when you acquire and/or learn a foreign language you have more and better possibilities in academic and professional life. This leads us to analyze different methodologies and teaching techniques to motivate the student to learn English accurately.

For further research, it is essential to include more details about the weekly time spent working on the online course that is focused on EFL activities, including speaking, reading, listening and writing. In addition, it would have been nice to ask for more details on the experience between the students and the teacher regarding her/his motivation at learning a second language.

 

FINANCING

No monetary.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I express my sincere gratitude to the Postgraduate Academic Unit of the Universidad Católica de Cuenca for allowing the development and promotion of this research article.

 

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