Abstract:

For most second language teachers, motivation is a key factor in the language learning and teaching process because it involves students finding a sense of personal meaningfulness in the learning experience. Since the 1980s, computer technology has become an important resource in the foreign and second language learning. What started out as a tool has now become for many a way of dealing with reality and, indeed, of being. Having grown up immersed in computer technology, students currently starting university belong to the so called Net generation. Technology for them is not merely a resource but a primary tool. In this paper we will study the level of motivation acquired by students of English in a computer assisted language learning class. Students in their first year of Architecture work independently with a programme based on specific software selected for its adaptability to the students’ different levels of second language proficiency. The paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of CALL from the perspective of both the teacher and the students. Language teachers today not only create and adapt content and develop tasks to meet the needs of the students, but they also organize and manage classes and resources. The authors maintain that the role of the teacher in CALL should also be adapted in such a way as to generate and maintain human interaction in the computer classroom context. This paper offers suggestion as to how to go about doing this.

Keywords:

motivation, web-based tasks, learner autonomy.