Preliminary Study on Factors Affecting Aptitude Level for Social Learning Focusing on EFL Online Discussion

Abstract

The purposes of this preliminary study are (1) to investigate possible factors for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ behavior and attitudes towards computer-supported collaborative learning focusing on online discussion. Comment numbers, satisfaction and perceived group contributions on two online discussions of 58 EFL students were analyzed with multiple regression correlation, in relation with items of six inventories; (a) social skill (Kikuchi, 2007), (b) Self-efficacy for English learning with CSCL based on Matsunuma (2006), (c) English learning strategy (Kubo, 1999), (d) Social presence and cognitive presence with text-chat developed based on Gunawardena & Zittle (1997), (e) Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Style (ILS) (Felder & Silverman, 1988), and (f) researcher-developed questionnaire for a discussion task. The results show that 11 items collectively account for 76.2% of the comment number variance (F(11,46)=13.39, p<.01), 15 items and “sequencel” type score of learning style significantly explain 89.2% of the learners’ satisfaction (F(16, 41)=21.12, p<.01), and 2 items and “sequential” type score of learning style describe 32.8% of the learners’ perceived contribution (F(3, 54)=8.80, p<.01). There are three overlapped items and one learning style type for all prediction equations. It indicates that 25 items and 11 items for sequential/global type in the learning style types may be utilized to predict EFL learners’ behavior and attitudes towards online discussion.