This study examined the characteristics of male high school English learners’ motivation and the relations between their motivation and achievement in English learning. A total of 334 Grade 10 students in a boys’ high school participated in this study by completing a questionnaire survey on second language (L2) learning motivation and taking an English achievement test. As a result of explanatory factor analysis, five factors were found as underlying constructs for male high school students’ English learning motivation: The Ought-to L2 Self, The Ideal L2 Self, The Feared L2 Self, Instrumentality, and Intrinsic Motivation. In terms of the structural relationships between the learners’ motivation and achievement in English learning, the ideal L2 self and intrinsic motivation exerted a direct impact on their motivated L2 behavior, and then English achievement mediated by the motivated L2 behavior. The other factors had an indirect influence on motivated L2 learning behavior, mediated by the ideal L2 self and intrinsic motivation. Based on the findings, we suggested motivational activities to realize the creation of the ideal L2 self among male high school English learners.

This theoretical position paper highlights how second language (L2) learning demotivation or decrease in motivation can be reconceptualized within the framework of Vygotskian Activity Theory (AT). Previous demotivation studies primarily focused on determining the demotivating factors. There has not been sufficient academic attention to the dynamic interaction between L2 learners and their potential factors for demotivation. In this paper, we attempted to apply AT in order to explain this intricate demotivation process, particularly focusing on L2learners’ subjective perceptions of their learning environment. From the perspective of AT, L2 learners’ learning-related activities are seen as activities composed of subject, object, mediational tool, community, rule, and division of labor. Describing a learner’s L2 learning experience in Lantolf and Genung’s (2002) study, we argue that the tensions emerging between the elements in the activity system result in demotivation. Future directions and the issue of commensurability of AT with other theories are discussed.