Enjoyability of English Language Learning from Iranian EFL Learners' Perspective.

Due to the importance of making enjoyable English language learning, and its impact on learners' degree of achievement in learning English language, this study investigated the factors that make English language learning more interesting and appealing for learners. These elements affect learning English in EFL classes. To achieve this purpose, 155 Iranian language learners participated in this study. The findings of this paper showed that: teachers; learners and their aims; parental supports are the most influential factors making English language learning appealing for the learners.

It is generally accepted that motivation is a key factor in successful language learning. Teachers of English must constantly search for effective teaching strategies, as well as for ways to maintain and arouse the interest and active participation of students in their classes. Everybody needs to have motivation and a reason for action; and to motivate learners we as teachers should know the interesting factors that can motivate learners more and more to learn English as a foreign language and make an enjoyable and appealing English learning process for learners during the process of learning.

Rahman, &. Et al, (2010) English is a foreign language and is not used in daily life; however there are aspects of second language environment. It has been observed that higher achievers are highly motivated and actively participate in the classroom activities while the slow learners rarely join in classroom activities and are worried about their English final examinations. This study investigated some factors that make English language learning process appealing for learners. In this paper 8 domains affect on this process, and make learning more enjoyable for learners. These domains are: Domain1: teachers; Domain2: learners and their aims; Domain3: the instrumental orientation; Domain4: classmates; Domain5: parental support; Domain 6: institute orientation; Domain7: classes and environment; Domain8: amount of tuition.

According to Oxford and Shearin (1994, cited in Nerry & Binder, 2001.p, 31): many factors affect motivation. In their study, they presented six factors that affect motivation in language learning: Attitudes (sentiments toward the learning community and the target language). Beliefs about self (expectancies about one's attitudes to success, self- efficacy and anxiety). Goals (perceived clarity and relevance of learning goals as reasons for learning). Involvement (extent to which the learner actively and consciously participates in the language learning process). Environmental support (extent of teacher and peer support, and the integration of cultural and outside-of-c1ass support into learning experience). Personal attributes (aptitude, age, sex, and previous language learning experience).

Usher (2010) conducted an experimental study on the "Characteristics of Students’ Best and Worst Classroom" and pointed out some factors as "importance of various factors in making of a favorite course". Based on his classification these factors are: 1. Interesting subject matter 2. Instructor’s engaging teaching style 3. Interesting course texts/materials 4. Interesting and challenging assignments 5. Helpful and knowledgeable teaching assistants 6. Intelligent contributions from other students 7. Use of up-to-date technology/equipment 8. Small class size 9. Easy work-load

Sass (1989) reported eight characteristics emerged as major contributors to student motivation that influenced his or her level of motivation: Instructor's enthusiasm Relevance of the material Organization of the course Appropriate difficulty level of the material Active involvement of students Variety Rapport between teacher and students Use of appropriate, concrete, and understandable examples

What factors contribute to making English language learning process appealing to learners from their own perspective?

Methodology The aim of this study was to identify factors that make English language learning appealing and interesting from learners' perspective. This was a survey study.

The total number of the participants of the study was 155; all of them were Iranian EFL students at either Intermediate or Upper-Intermediate level. The participants were selected randomly from three institutes in Sanandaj and Kamyaran. The participants include both male and female students who took part voluntarily in different phases of the study.

To collect data, the researcher used two questionnaires. At first; an open- ended questionnaire was developed to identify the factors that make English classes more interesting from the students' perspective, and then based on those factors that students mentioned the closed questionnaire was developed. Since the participants were all Iranian EFL students of English, the questionnaire was administered in Persian. The students were asked to complete the questionnaires in the class during a session. They were also asked to check the questions carefully, read them thoroughly and if there were some questions regarding the comprehension of the questions, they were allowed to ask them either in native language (NL) or target language (TL); that is English. Respondents had enough time to complete the task and all the questionnaires were collected at the end of the session. There was no missed or distorted questionnaire. The closed questionnaire had 25 items; the questionnaire was a five point's scale ranging from "Very much" to "Very little".

The students' responses to the closed questionnaire were analyzed in terms of descriptive and inferential statistics. The data was basically ordinal and based on frequencies. Therefore, percentages were calculated. The raw data was fed into the computer and a nonparametric test of Tukey HSD was run by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 16 software for each case to know whether the distribution was different from what one would expect by chance. In other words, it was done to determine whether the observed frequencies had statistically significant difference with the expected ones or they had just occurred by mere chance.

This study was conducted to investigate the most appealing and interesting factors during the learning process. The findings of the study revealed that there are many factors that can make language learning interesting for students; but three of them are the most important: teachers; learners and their aims; parental support.