Motivational model of English learning among elementary school students in Japan (2023)

Self-Determination Theory conceptualizes basic psychological needs (BPN) for autonomy, competence and relatedness as essentials for the learner to experience, maintain, and promote well-being, personal growth, and learning. However, the evidence of its influence in the classroom is still limited, especially in basic education (ages six to 14). The aim of the present study was to perform a systematic review of empirical evidence addressing the association of basic psychological needs on motivation, well-being, engagement, and academic achievement in elementary and middle school students. A comprehensive search of studies published in peer-review articles (2000–2021) was conducted on six electronic databases, and from 204 articles retrieved, 32 articles met the inclusion criteria. The studies showed that all psychological needs satisfaction were positively associated with intrinsic motivation and engagement. In contrast, due to the lack of studies that met methodological quality, the hypothesis that need satisfaction positively influences the well-being and academic achievement of elementary school students cannot be fully supported. The findings underscore the role of teachers in supporting pupils’ psychological needs, not only for early adolescents, but also for children. However, the strength of the evidence is tempered by the lack of studies for each variable studied. Further experimental research on this topic should elucidate how educators can harness the benefits of need-supportive environment to improve the motivation, well-being, engagement and achievement of children in their communities.

The aim of this article is to introduce second and foreign language researchers to personal investment theory, a classic motivation theory that takes a multi-faceted approach to understand when and why learners invest themselves in a particular domain. Personal investment theory posits that there are three key components of meaning--(1) facilitating conditions, (2) sense of self, and (3) perceived goals--which are crucial to understanding motivation and learning. The paper gives an overview of the key tenets of personal investment theory and illustrates the synergies between this theory and research in second and foreign language learning. Although personal investment theory has seldom been used in second and foreign language research, a case is made for how it can enrich mainstream second and foreign language theorizing. Personal investment theory has key strengths including its integrative multi-faceted approach to understanding motivation, sensitivity to the role of socio-cultural influences, focus on powerful yet neglected constructs, and its recognition of cross-cultural similarities and differences. The paper concludes with recommendations for optimizing second and foreign language learning.

Promoting intrinsic motivation is often a central concern in teaching foreign languages to elementary school children. Self-determination theory posits that intrinsic motivation develops through the interaction of the person and the environment. The present study investigated how elementary school students’ motivation develops over the course of a school year in Japanese public schools. Five-hundred and fifteen Japanese elementary school children were surveyed over the course of one school year. Self-reported motivation, perceptions of teacher support, need satisfaction, and engagement were measured at different times. External raters observed students’ engagement, while classroom teachers assessed the quality of students’ motivation and learning. Structural equation modeling results indicated a positive, dynamic relationship between motivation, perceptions of the learning environment, and engagement. External raters’ assessments showed significant positive correlations with students’ self-reported engagement. Findings indicate how the instruction offered in these Japanese elementary schools supported students’ foreign language learning motivation.

A culture of engagement may help to build and sustain young children's motivation to learn a new language. In this study, we sought to investigate the link between engagement and motivation over the course of a semester in a naturally occurring Japanese elementary school classroom environment. Four-hundred and twenty-three fifth-year students in public elementary schools in western Japan agreed to participate in the research. Students completed surveys at two time points, first at the beginning of the semester regarding their in-class engagement, and again at the end of the semester regarding their motivation. A structural equation model was constructed using engagement and gender as predictors and motivational regulations as outcome variables. Observer rating of each class was used to triangulate. Engagement strongly predicted more adaptive intrinsically regulated motives and negatively predicted more extrinsic motives. Male students showed a tendency toward lower engagement, lower internally regulated motives, and higher externally regulated motives. Observer rating showed that students' reported engagement was visible to outside observers. Findings indicate that students' in-class engagement may be an important variable when investigating the long-term dynamics of foreign language learning in a classroom setting. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Situated in a demotivating learning environment, this study examined the roles of motivation and peers in EFL vocabulary learning. The participants were 155 science and engineering students in Japan. They took a vocabulary test and responded to a questionnaire based on the self-determination theory and peer engagement/disengagement in learning. The results of six multiple stepwise regression analyses showed that: (1) to enjoy and value learning is vital to develop a larger vocabulary size; (2) perceived autonomy is important in cultivating the enjoyment and value of learning in learners' minds; (3) perceived competence plays a decisive role in motivating and demotivating learners; and (4) whereas motivated peers have little impact on learners' motivation in a demotivating learning environment, demotivated peers have a negative influence. These findings reveal the malleability of peer influences as well as crucial factors for successful EFL vocabulary acquisition in a demotivating learning context.

This study discusses the development and validation of the Learner Attitudes and Motivations for Pronunciation (LAMP) Inventory. The LAMP is a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire designed to capture learners’ motivations and attitudes towards English pronunciation practice and learning. The article examines the theoretical framework and extant scales that guided the construction of the inventory items and reports the steps taken to validate the instrument. The LAMP was administered to 704 Korean adolescents studying English in South Korea. An exploratory factor analysis found four motivation factors—integrative, intrinsic, extrinsic, and curiosity—, and four attitude factors—cognitive, conative, negative affect, and self-efficacy. Finally, the paper discusses implications for research and pronunciation instruction in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts and suggests avenues for future research in other instructional contexts.

System, Volume 41, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 852-865

The present study addressed the question whether formulaic expressions indicate nativelike selection in the target language by examining seven Turkish students' use of formulaic expressions during their first year in the United States. Fourteen external raters who spoke English as their first language rated the Turkish (focal group) and American students' (control group) DCT responses in terms of nativelike language use. The results indicated that the American students not only received higher nativelikeness ratings but also produced more formulaic expressions than the Turkish students. This finding confirms that freely generated utterances based on grammatical units and lexis forecast non-membership to the speech community (Skehan, 1998) while the use of formulaic expressions is an indicator of nativelike selection. The results also revealed that gaining competency over formulaic expressions for second language learners is not a linear process but open to creativity.

System, Volume 41, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 529-542

Ideas generation is a cognitive process that is imperative to producing good writing. However, much is not known about the occurrence of this process and how it is affected by various manipulated planning time and task conditions. This study examined the effects of three planning time conditions (planning time, extended planning time, and no planning time) and two task conditions (topic given vs. topic and ideas given) on the quality, and quantity and rate of ideas produced in the planning notes and essays of 52 English as a Second Language (ESL) Chinese pre-university students. Results showed that there was an outburst of ideas in the essays of the no planning condition. The quality of these ideas was not traded-off with this outburst of ideas. Although the quality and quantity of ideas were superior in the planning notes of the extended planning time condition, such beneficial effects dissipated in the transcription process. The extended planning time condition produced the worst quality of ideas and the least number of ideas in the essays. The topic and ideas given condition produced a marginally significantly better quality of ideas in the essays than the topic given condition, albeit no significant difference in the quantity of ideas.

System, Volume 41, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 841-851

A persistent and yet unresolved question raised by language teachers is how to ensure even participation during whole-class interaction. Neither published teacher training materials nor scholarly research on classroom turn-taking, however, have been addressed to this particular aspect of pedagogical concerns. Based on two-hour videotaped data from an adult ESL (English as a Second Language) classroom, this case study details how one teacher systematically manages the participation of a student who appears to be negotiating for more than her “fair share” of the floor. Findings of this study extend our current understanding of (classroom) turn-taking and constitute a potentially important resource for broadening and specifying language teacher education.

System, Volume 41, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 654-662

The present research investigates the efficacy of explicit phonetics and pronunciation instruction on learners of L2 French, by comparing the progress made by students enrolled in a phonetics course at a university with a control group of other advanced L2 French students who are not enrolled in phonetics. This study investigates the extent to which these findings apply to learners of French. Results indicate a positive effect of explicit instruction; a series of two-tailed t-tests showed no significant difference between groups on the pretest, but a significant difference between groups both on the posttest score and rate of improvement; a repeated-measures ANOVA showed an effect for time as a within-groups factor and an interaction of time×group. Both pretest and posttest measured the percent of syllables correctly pronounced in the respective recordings.

System, Volume 41, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 752-769

This article reports on a case study that explored the process of wiki-based collaborative writing in a small group of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at a Chinese university. The study examined the archived logs from the group wiki ‘Discussion’ and ‘History’ modules with a focus on the group members' scaffolded interaction when co-constructing texts in the wiki space. The analysis revealed that the participants were actively engaged in reciprocal communication in terms of content discussion, social talk, task management, technical communication and language negotiation. They were also found to have scaffolded each other's writing efforts during co-constructing the product via multiple writing change functions, including addition, deletion, rephrasing, reordering and correction. This study explicated a distinct case of ‘collective scaffolding’ (Donato, 1994) in collaborative writing activities, where group members were simultaneously individual novices and collective experts as they pooled their knowledge and mutually guided each other through problem solving as to writing tasks. This study has important implications for instruction and future research on computer-mediated collaborative writing.

System, Volume 41, Issue 3, 2013, pp. 770-785