Enhancing Online EFL Learners’ Motivation and Engagement through Supplementary Activities on Facebook

Abstract

This study offers an explanatory case study research that reflected on how the motivational design based supplementary activities used in a social network site, namely Facebook, affect online EFL learners’ process of learning. The participants consisted of 105 online EFL learners who contributed to the study on a voluntary basis. The data was gathered over a three-week period through a web-based open-ended questionnaire compiled by the researchers. The findings of the study indicate that using supplementary activities given on Facebook has a significant contribution to online distance EFL learners’ course interest, motivation, volition, and academic performance. Besides, the supplementary activities swayed the learners to persist in and make an effort to reach the learning goals. Based on the findings collected in this study, the authors posit that Facebook, as a powerful social network site, could be used as a supportive milieu for open and distance learning courses conducted for English Language Learning. In addition to the findings mentioned above, suggestions for future research directions and implications for practice discussed.