The Relationship between Different Types of Engagement with Digital Media and the Armenian High Schoolers’ Motivation to Learn English

Abstract

Nowadays, digital media have become part of various youth practices. They provide young people with a new platform for socializing, playing, sharing information, and creating content.Moreover, in these various practices with digital media, young people gain autonomy and independence over an activity. As a result, they become more interested and more motivated to learn new things.This research study aimed at identifying the types of engagement with digital media in the Armenian context. The three types of digital media involvement identified by Mizuko Ito, a research scientist at the University of California, have served as a conceptual framework for this study. Next, this study tried to establish a relationship between the three types of engagement with digital media and the Armenian high schoolers’ motivation to learn English.This research study included 367 Armenian high schoolers from Yerevan.Descriptive Statistics analysis, Spearman Rank-Order Correlation analysis, and Multiple Regression analysis was run to analyze the data collected from a 57-item questionnaire.As a result of the statistical analysis of the data, a positive relationship was established between the Armenian high schoolers’ motivation to learn English and the types of engagement with digital media.