Using Photostory, MovieMaker and Voki to motivate Danish Upper Secondary Students to learn German language and culture – An empirical qualitative study of students’ perceived intrinsic motivation

Abstract

Foreign language and culture learning suffers from a bad image in Danish Upper Secondary schools and German is not an exception. It means that the majority of Danish Upper Secondary school students are not particularly interested in learning the language. Therefore, intrinsic motivation plays a pivotal role in German language and culture learning in Denmark. One didactic initiative proposed to remedy the lack of intrinsic motivation is the introduction of various ICT (Information and Communication Technology) tools. This is the background for the research described in this article. Our study which was conducted on the basis of semi-structured focus group interviews with n=50 high school students and n=2 high school teachers shows that the ICT tools Photostory, MovieMaker and Voki indeed have an influence on students' perceived intrinsic motivation in connection with German language and culture learning. Depending on the nature of the tool, our thematic analysis indicates that such tools facilitate different aspects of perceived intrinsic motivation. Still, our study shows that the tools have a limited effect on perceived intrinsic motivation, unless they are addressed and used strategically in the proper pedagogical context.

The effect of web 2.0 based technology applications on speaking skills and speaking anxiety in teaching Turkish as a foreign language: Voki example

“…In this study, students also stated that they were satisfied with Voki because it provided a fun, enjoyable, stress-free and effective learning environment. Similarly, in some studies, students reported that Voki was an effective ( Svendsen et al, 2014 ) and enjoyable application in providing intrinsic motivation in the foreign language learning process ( Pereira and Silva, 2018 ).…”

“…This result shows that Voki practices have a positive effect on speaking skills. Most studies in the literature also show that Voki improves speaking skills, especially in foreign language teaching, as it enables students to actively participate in the learning process by vocalizing written texts through the avatars they choose and creates a fun learning environment ( Picardo, 2009 ; Zargaryan, 2012 ; Svendsen et al, 2014 ; Setyawati and Azizaturrohmah, 2016 ; Manty et al, 2017 ; Özdemir, 2017 ; Bellés-Calvera and Bellés-Fortuño, 2018 ; Pereira and Silva, 2018 ; Ramdani, 2018 ; Namaziandost and Nasri, 2019 ; İstifanoğlu, 2020 ; Nguyen Thi Kieu and Nguyen, 2021 ; Yeşilbağ and Korkmaz, 2021 ).…”

“…Accordingly, at the end of the experimental application, it was determined that the out-of-class and in-class speaking anxiety of the experimental group students decreased. When the related literature is examined, it is found that Voki has a positive effect on student attitudes ( Zargaryan, 2012 ; Bellés-Calvera and Bellés-Fortuño, 2018 ) and self-confidence development ( İstifanoğlu, 2020 ) as well as reducing speaking anxiety ( Svendsen et al, 2014 ; Yona and Marlina, 2014 ).…”

“…Similar to this result, Setyawati and Azizaturrohmah (2016) found in their study that Voki practice increases speaking motivation in foreign language teaching. In the related literature, many studies have shown that Voki improves students’ speaking and communication skills, increases their desire and creativity to speak in the target language, helps them plan their oral presentations, helps them remember vocabulary and language structures better, and enables individual work ( Svendsen et al, 2014 ; Yona and Marlina, 2014 ; Baş and Yıldırım, 2018 ; Pereira and Silva, 2018 ; Nguyen Thi Kieu and Nguyen, 2021 ). In this study, students also stated that they were satisfied with Voki because it provided a fun, enjoyable, stress-free and effective learning environment.…”

“…In another study, students stated that Voki was partially useful in the development of speaking skills, but they emphasized that they did not find the application useful enough due to the limited free option and that they sometimes had difficulty using the application due to network problems. In addition, students stated that they did not enjoy this application enough because they found Voki childish, unrealistic, funny and virtual ( Svendsen et al, 2014 ). Similarly, in this study, students expressed that they were not satisfied with the application because they found the cartoon characters simple, childish and virtual.…”