I love Indonesia: EFL learners’ perceptions on web-facilitated language learning

Abstract

Integration of computers into Foreign Language (fl) learning has become the allbut-inevitable direction for the future, given the (a) considerable benefits this affords for students of English as a Foreign Language (efl), (b) characteristics of today’s learners as Generation Z (González-Lloret & Ortega, 2014), and (c) widespread use of the internet in the twenty-first century. This situation has spurred a transformation of ComputerAssisted Language Learning (call) into Web-Facilitated Language Learning (wfll) as an alternative paradigm for efl teachers and learners. Furthermore, Task-Based Language Teaching (tblt) is likely to serve as a pedagogical framework in designing the web for the purpose of fl learning. The primary objectives of the present study were therefore to (a) develop a teacher-designed learning website, namely I Love Indonesia, and (b) gather information from high school learners of English in Indonesia with different attitudes towards call (positive/moderate/negative) in correlation with how they perceive wfll (agree/disagree) and perform web-based activities. Descriptive Statistics, if Function in Excel, Correlation Analysis, and Independent-samples T-test were employed in the study. Finally, the study findings demonstrate that (a) the majority of learners participating in the study have positive attitudes towards call, (b) all focused participants have positive perceptions of wfll and (c) learners with positive attitudes are likely to have more positive perceptions (to agree) than moderate and negative attitude learners (ones who disagree) on the use of the website for language learning. In addition, the website seems to benefit efl learners in some specific areas. Consideration should be given to working with 158 The jalt call Journal 2018: Regular Papers a greater number of learners over a longer period of time when conducting further studies on the effectiveness of the website for efl learners in order to be able to shed some light on the development of their language skills.