Online English Self-Study by University Students: A Study on Motivation and its Effectiveness During a Long Vacation

Abstract

In this study, we set up an online self-study session for university students in Japan to build English vocabulary during a summer vacation. We divided the session into three courses with different degrees of the teacher’s support to observe the participants’ motivation. This study reveals that many participants overestimated their motivation before the vacation, although part-time jobs, university summer courses, internships and disorganized lifestyle prevented them from keeping their self-study. However, the majority of the participants who answered the post-session questionnaire expressed positive feelings toward the study session. Holding a self-study session during a vacation offers the students opportunities to develop their study habits. Also, securing the sufficient study time is one of the keys to the successful self-study.