Exploring the Connections Between EFL Learners’ Motivation, Engagement and Pragmatic Development in Self-Access Web-Based Instruction

The present study investigates the relationship between initial learner motivation, engagement, and pragmatic development within a self-access web-based instructional environment. Focused on the development of awareness and production of English email requests to faculty, the study involved 65 first-year English Studies students at a Spanish public university. Motivation was assessed qualitatively through open-ended responses which were classified as having Pragmatic orientation, Linguistic orientation, or No orientation. Engagement was captured multidimensionally via project-linked indices of behavioural, cognitive, and affective involvement. Findings reveal that initial motivation predicted greater overall engagement, including increased time invested and deeper cognitive processing. A distinct modality gap was identified: while engagement related positively to pragmatic gains, it exerted stronger effects on awareness than production. Most crucially, profile analyses revealed that sustained engagement can override initial motivational deficits. Learners who entered the module with no initial orientation but still engaged at a moderate level significantly outperformed unmotivated, disengaged peers and achieved gains comparable to those of more motivated students. These findings underscore the mediating role of engagement in pragmatic instruction and advocate for specific motivational and engagement assessments over general scales to better account for the effects of these individual differences in L2 pragmatic gains.