The Influencing Factors of Learning Motivation in the Computer-Aided Speaking Course: An Empirical Approach

With the development of technology, online teaching systems are resorted to in the purpose of improving the teaching efficiency, which is closely related to students’ participation in the aiding online systems. What are the factors influencing students’ using of the online systems? To answer this question, this study, in the light of Dornyei’s theory, proposed four hypotheses concerning the influencing factors of second language learning motivation. It introduced the Fif online speaking training system in the speaking course Audio-Visual-Oral Business English, and designed four tasks according to the four hypotheses to see students’ participation in the tasks. By carefully examining the data collected, this study found that the hypothesized motivational factors, including the students’ desire, positive feedback from the teacher, relevancy with the in-class learning content and the requirement of the course did work in their post-class autonomous learning which is seen through their completion of the online speaking task. It is observed that the students made efforts to narrow the discrepancy between the real self and the possible self of future as competent second language users. Besides, negative self-suggestion would lead to the poor performance in completing the online exercise. Based on the results and findings, how to better engage the learners in their online training is further discussed.