Students' perceptions of the motivating characteristics of tasks in a commonly used EFL course book

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to investigate students’ motivation levels as a response to five different task types – group work, group discussion, interview, role play and information-gap tasks − in a commonly used EFL course book and their motivating characteristics from students' perceptions at the Foreign Languages Center of İstanbul Kültür University. The data gathered from a motivation questionnaire were submitted to quantitative analysis while the data collected from semi-structured interviews and students' journals were submitted to qualitative analysis. In order to measure students' motivation levels towards five different task types, the mean values and standard deviations for each task in each class and for all tasks from all proficiency levels were calculated. Additionally, an ANOVA test was run to compare the motivation levels of all students to similar task types and different classes towards different task types. In order to analyze the qualitative data, recurring patterns about the motivating characteristics of tasks were found both in the interviews and student journals. Then similar comments that were recurring in the data from these two instruments were matched to describe both motivating and demotivating aspects of tasks from students’ perceptions. Results revealed that students found the tasks from a commonly used course book motivating on a scale between "some" and much". They preferred the group work task due to its motivating characteristics. The group discussion task was evaluated as the second most motivating activity, while the interview task was labeled as the third motivating task by the participants of the present study. On the other hand, students evaluated role play and information gap tasks as only partially motivating, as they recognized both motivating and demotivating aspects of these task types, which led to a statistical difference at a significant level in the upperintermediate level. The results from the present study may call teachers' attention to students’ perceptions of motivating and demotivating characteristics of course book tasks, so that teachers can exploit course book tasks more efficiently.