This paper investigates L2 motivation and demotivation of college English majors in a Korean junior college. The participants’ L2 (de)motivation was explored by the oughtto L2 self, an element of the L2 motivational self system. Data were collected from two rounds of interviews with 59 and 31 students in all four years and analyzed qualitatively. The sources of the ought-to L2 self varied; however, it was a matter of how the participants recognized others’ expectations and pressure (i.e., manageable or beyond control). It was also relevant to how they comprehended and internalized these external influences for their L2 learning and (de)motivation. The findings indicate that the oughtto L2 self could be a contributing factor in sustaining L2 motivation and exerting effort. Finally, this paper calls for more needs to ensure and promote personalized and meaningful L2 learning for college English major students.

This study investigated the extent to which explicit and implicit instruction improve L1-Arabic speakers’ articulation of English words whose cognates were acquired earlier in their L2 French. Sixty-eight secondary school students, explicit (n=35) and implicit (n=33), participated in a programme incorporating focus-on-pronunciation activities, comprising three 45-minute sessions. Their learning motivation was first rated using an adapted version of Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB). Their pronunciation improvement was assessed through an oral-reading task. Ten new words were included in the post-test to see if they would generalize the instructed knowledge analogically. Results indicated that both explicit and implicit instruction had a positive impact on the students’ pronunciation advancement. However, the explicit group outperformed the implicit group with both the targeted and untaught words. There was insignificant interaction effect between instructional method and students’ motivation level, with higher motivation uniformly enhancing the effect of instruction. Nevertheless, motivation played a more crucial role in the learnt knowledge transferability when instruction was of implicit.

Many empirical findings of previous studies have suggested a connection between motivational factors and L2 writing. Nonetheless, the impact of motivational factors on the genre-based L2 writing has not gained much attention. The present study explored the extent to which the characteristics of two writing tasks involving different genres interact with a learner’s motivational disposition (regulatory focus) and, further, affect language production of writing. 106 essays collected from 53 university EFL learners were assessed in terms of linguistic complexity and accuracy. 2X2 ANOVA results revealed significant main effects of genre on lexical complexity (lexical variation and MSTTR). More importantly, there were significant interaction effects between genre and regulatory focus on both measures of the syntactic complexity (mean length of T-unit and clause per T-unit) and lexical complexity (lexical density). The findings highlighted the significance of learners’ motivational dispositions in genre writing. Drawing on the findings, some pedagogical suggestions to ensure the effectiveness of writing tasks on L2 development were proposed.

Jeju has become an important hub for tourism and English education in Northeast Asia and the importance of English in Jeju cannot be overemphasized. This paper compares the psychological and cognitive approaches of SLA motivation and sociological approaches of investment. Language learning involves the complex identities of language learners. Poststructuralists are interested in how language learners’ positions might influence their investments and how their investments affect their identity formation. However, researchers in Jeju have not given enough attention to the identity changes and investment transformation during students’ English learning processes. Therefore, it is important to investigate English learners’ investment and identity formations in the various sociocultural contexts in Jeju.

The purpose of this study was to study how L2 motivations in both Dörnyei’s (2005, 2009) L2 Motivational Self System and Gardner’s (1985) socio-educational model were related to intrinsic and extrinsic subscales in the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) in Korean college contexts. This study investigated the relationships among the motivational variables by the use of the correlation method and the effects of L2 motivations on motivated behavior through multiple regression analysis. The findings showed Gardner’s (1985) integrativeness and ideal L2 self were strongly correlated with the more self-determined types of motivations, while L2 learning experience and ought-to L2 self were associated with the less self-determined ones in the self-determination theory. In addition, Dörnyei’s (2005, 2009) L2 Motivational Self System and the extrinsic motivation subscales, identified regulation and external regulation, explained Korean college students’ motivated behavior better than Gardner’s (1985) integrativeness. The theoretic discussions are made at the conclusion.

This study examines the relationship of L2 learners’ motivational and attitudinal factors with the two versions (self-rated and tested) of proficiency. 79 Korean university students were assessed on measures of L2 orientations, motivation, and attitudes toward English using a questionnaire and learning autobiographies. The study also compared participants’ self-reported proficiency with their TOEIC scores. The results show that more of negative values (self-rated proficiency is lower than tested proficiency) came from students with high test scores than low-achieving students. Students defined gaining bilingual proficiency as criterion for success in L2 learning,and their expectation of such desired proficiency is significantly correlated with motivation and perceived significance of English, but not with the self-rated and tested proficiency. Multiple regression analyses suggest that students’ self-awareness of the importance of English learning significantly predicts their motivation, and linguistic L2confidence and self-assessment of target language competence are significant predictors for tested proficiency, but motivational intention is not. Potential interpretations for findings and implications for L2 pedagogy are discussed.

This study examines the relationship between students’ perceptions of learning contexts and motivation to learn English in Korea. Three categories of contexts were operationalized: the transnational context as learners’ international interest including study-abroad desires, the national context as awareness of English learning to prepare for CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test) and their classroom experience as the last category. A total of 433 high school students were assessed on measures of L2 learning goals, perception of contexts, self-reported L2 proficiency and motivational intention in the questionnaire, followed by focal participants’ interviews and essays. The statistical analyses show that transitional and classroom categories are statistically correlated with motivational intention. However, the national context is negatively correlated with actual motivation. Multiple regression analyses found that the transnational category is the best predictor for motivational intention, while the national category involves the least significant predictor. The students’ classroom experience is also a meaningful, milder than transnational, predictor. Synthesized results of both quantitative and qualitative data suggest that L2 motivation is more of a sociolinguistic construct that should be construed in relation to multiple social contexts. Findings also suggest Dörnyei’s (2005, 2009) notion of the ideal L2 self can better explain the complexity of L2 learning motivation, whereby the integrative-instrumental dichotomy loses its explanatory power.

This study examines the effects of Korean EFL learners’ motivation and anxiety on their English speaking skills with a structural equation approach. The participants of the study are 193 college students enrolled in English conversation classes. The questionnaire on learning orientations, attitudes toward the community of native speakers of English, motivational intensity, class satisfaction and anxiety are given to the college students and their English speaking skills are assessed in terms of IATEFL’s criteria: Range, ease of speech, attitude, delivery, and interaction. Reliability and factor analysis are employed to confirm the internal consistency of questionnaire items and the validity of construct, and a structural equation model is run to examine the relation of Korean EFL learners’ affective aspects to their English speaking skills. The findings of the study are as follows: (1) while Korean learners’ attitudes toward native speakers of English and their community do not contribute to their desire to learn English, their learning orientations are found to affect their desire to learn English. (2) class satisfaction and desire to learn English are found to affect learners’ efforts to learn English, while anxiety is found to negatively contribute to leaners’ motivation intensity. (3) both integrative orientation and anxiety have direct effects on English speaking skills, integrative orientation affirmatively but anxiety negatively. Based on the findings, some suggestions are given for effective second language learning and teaching.

본 연구는 자기 조절적 요약(self-regulatory summarizing) 교육과 연습이 초급 수준의 L2 성인 학습 자들의 동기신념(motivation beliefs) 및 쓰기 수행 (writing performance)에 어떠한 영향을 주는지를 연구하였다. 자기 조절 학습 (self-regulation learning), 학습 동기(motivation), 및 쓰기 수행의 상호 연관성에 관한 이론적 배경을 바탕으로 본 연구의 의미를 살펴보았다. 먼저, 학습자들의 동기신념의 변화를 살펴보기 위해 사전과 사후 MSLQ 설문지의 응답 결과를 분석한 결과, 참가한 학습자들의 동기신념이 전체적으로 보다 긍정적으로 변화하였음을 보여주고 있었다. 특히 내적성취목표성향 (intrinsic goal orientation)과 과업가치(Task value)에 대한 신념이 가장 의미 있게 변화하였고, 뒤를 이어, 학습조절신념(control of learning belief)과 학습과 수행에 대한 자기 효능감(self-efficacy for learning and performance)이 보다 긍정적으로 변화하였으며, 외적성취목표성향(extrinsic goal orientation)이 가장 작은 변화를 보인 한편, 시험불안(test anxiety)의 정도가 의미 있게 감소하였음을 보여주었다. 또한, 자기 조절적 요약 연습 이후 쓰기 수행에 있어서는, 문장, T-unit, 및 절의 평균 길이가 가장 의미 있게 변화하였음을 보여주고 있으며 이러한 문장들은 보다 많은 중문 및 복문을 포함하고 있음을 나타내었다. 이러한 결과들은 초급 수준의 L2 학습자들이 교수자의 안내, 도움 및 피드백과 함께 자기조절학습을 촉진하는 네 가지 단계인 목표설정(goal setting), 자기 모니터링 (self-monitoring), 일반화(generalization), 그리고 자기강화(self-reinforcement)를 인지하고 기억함과 동시에 체계적이고 명시적인 요약 연습을 함으로써 얻어진 결과로 보여 진다. 이는 자기조절학습 (self-regulated learning)은 학습 동기요소를 독려하여 긍정적 자기 효능감 및 내적 목표성향을 높여 주게 되어 결국 학습자의 인지적 활동 및 수행에 긍정적으로 작용하게 됨을 증명하는 결과로 보여 진다.

The primary objective of this study was to explore the relationship between L2 reading motivation and L2 reading strategy use. 283 Chinese college EFL students participated in this study. They answered a questionnaire with 65 items that measured the three constructs of reading motivation, reading strategy use and their self-perceived reading proficiency. Confirmatory factor analyses were applied to check the validity of each construct. Based on their motivation scores, the subjects were divided into different clusters; 22.6% of the subjects to the most highly motivated cluster; 34.4% to the moderately motivated cluster; 43.1% to the least motivated cluster. Discriminant analysis showed that such variables as advanced comprehension strategies, repetition and comprehension enhancing strategies were statistically significant variables that distinguished the three groups from each other. These results imply that EFL learners may be instructed to be aware of the importance of L2 reading motivation and L2 reading strategies for improving their L2 reading proficiency.