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 study is aimed to identify how college freshman English achievement correlates to two factors of high school English achievement: high school academic records of English and CSAT English scores. The subjects were 160 freshmen who enrolled in ‘English Conversation 1’ in their first semester and ‘English Conversation 2’ in their second. Of 160 students, 143 students, the regular admission group, were admitted to the university based on their high school academic records and CSAT scores, while the remaining 17 students, the early admission group, were admitted based only on their high school academic records. The subjects’college English achievements were divided into two categories: one was class preparation (including participation, attendance, and assignments), and the other was exams including the midterm, basically a listening test, and the final, composed of writing and grammar tests. Results showed that the regular admission group’s college English achievement correlated closely with the group’s CSAT English scores and high school academic records of English while there was a lack of correlation between the early admission group’s college English achievement and its high school academic records of English.