The motivation to learn a foreign language is a complex process. According to the Ministry of National Education of Colombia -MEN-, speaking English is a generic competence to be developed at all educational levels. In this regard and based on the Theory of Self-Determination -SDT-, this qualitative phenomenological study aims to identify and analyse the aspects related to the motivation to learn English in undergraduate students of the Virtual and Distance modalities -E-Learning-. The main instrument used for data collection was a semi-structured individual interviews. The participants in the research were a group of 16 women and 3 men. The analysis was carried out through semantic categorizations and with the support of NVivo 11 software, which lets assume that motivation for learning English is strongly influenced by external factors.

The motivation to learn a foreign language is a complex process. It is the analysis of related aspects such as the role of the tutor in E-learning. However, the study of the motivation based on Self-Determination Theory -SDT- and E-learning English with the Computer Assisted Language Learning approach -CALL can provide tools to understand and improve the teaching-learning processes. This qualitative study aims to identify and analyze the aspects around motivation to learn English related to online tutor's role. The main instruments used to collect data were a focus group and a discursive analysis of the messages sent by the selected tutors. The participants in the research were a group of tutors composed of 5 women and 1 man. The analysis was carried out through semantic categorizations and with the support of NVivo 12 software. The results let assume that the role of the tutor can influence in the motivation to learn a foreign language, while optimizing communication processes.