The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitization of schools in Japan. Due to temporary school closures during the COVID-19 outbreak, online classes were widely implemented. Educational platforms were adopted for students to engage in online learning from home. The online learning behavior of foreign language learners has gained significant attention recently as a post-Covid paradigm. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, I discuss the data collected from a sample of Japanese learners of English who engage in online distance learning courseware. The psychological factors, such as motivation, self-regulation, and self-efficacy, are examined to understand their impact on online learning behavior. Additionally, institutional factors, such as the influence of educational settings and learning environments, are considered to identify their role in shaping learners’ behavior. One key aspect is learning procrastination, which is a common phenomenon among learners. The reasons behind learning procrastination, including psychological factors such as perfectionism, fear of failure, and low self-esteem, as well as institutional factors such as time constraints and workload, are analyzed to understand their influence on learners’ online learning behavior. In this talk, I hope that the audience will have a better understanding of the complex interplay between psychological and institutional factors in shaping the online learning behavior of Japanese learners of English based on our one-year project.
Yuichi Ono, who received his doctoral degree in Japan in 2015, is a professor at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. He was employed as a CALL manager at the Center for Education of Global Communication (CEGLOC) in 2011. His research areas include Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), Language Learning Support Systems, Collaborative Learning, as well as Theoretical Linguistics such as Second Language Acquisition and Natural Language Processing. As an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructor, he teaches computer-assisted courses such as critical reading skills and integrated-skill enhancement courses to Japanese EFL learners. He won a best paper award at the IIAI AAI 2022-Winter Congress and was a best paper nominee at ICCE2017.