Goals, attitudes and self-related beliefs in second language
learning motivation: An interactive model of language learning motivation
Judit Kormos, Thom Kiddle and
Kata Csizér
Abstract
In the present study we surveyed the English language
learning motivations of 518 secondary school students, university students and
young adult learners in the capital of Chile, Santiago. We applied multi-group
structural equation modeling to analyze how language learning goals, attitudes,
self-related beliefs and parental encouragement interact in shaping motivated
behavior and to investigate age- and group-related differences in the internal
structure of language learning motivation. We compared our findings to previous
studies using similar instruments in different settings, and based on our
findings, we proposed a new interactive model of language learning motivation,
which consists of goal-systems, attitudes, selfefficacy beliefs and future
self-guides.
To be published in Applied
Linguistics
Introduction
Based on Dörnyei’s (2005) theory of the motivational
self-system, a number of studies have recently been conducted which highlighted
the important role of self-concept in motivation. Parallel to this, recent
thinking about motivation has started to reinterpret motivation in the light of
dynamic systems theory (Dörnyei, 2009; Csizér, Kormos & Sarkadi, 2010), and
attempts have been made to view motivation interacting with the cognitive and
affective characteristics of the individual. In our paper we investigated how
cognitive, affective and social factors within the construct of motivation
interact in shaping motivated behavior in an as-yet-unexplored context: Chile.
The selection of the research site was motivated by the lack of research on
language learning motivation in the South-American context. Spanish is the most
frequently spoken language on the continent, and in many parts of the world it
has retained its status as a lingua franca. Therefore, we were interested in
examining whether the fact that students’ L1 is Spanish would result in a
different structure of motivation than in contexts where either the students’
L1 is a rare language (e.g. Hungarian in Europe) or where
English is the most important mediating language across
cultures (e.g. in certain countries in Asia such as India).
We applied
multi-group structural equation modeling to analyze how language learning
goals, attitudes, self-related beliefs and parental encouragement interact, and
to investigate age- and group-related differences in the internal structure of
language learning motivation. We compared our statistical models to previous
studies using similar instruments in different settings, and based on our
findings, we proposed a new interactive system of language learning motivation,
which consists of goal-systems, attitudes, self-efficacy beliefs, and future
self-guides.
Review of literature
Language learning motivation research has a long history in
the field of second language acquisition starting from Gardner and Lambert’s
(1959) pioneering work in the bilingual context of Canada. There is also a
long-standing tradition of motivation research in educational psychology. In
both fields of study, goals, attitudes and self-related beliefs have served as
central constructs. Therefore, in order to gain a better understanding of these
concepts, it is important to compare models of L2 learning motivation with
general psychological models of motivation and identify constructs that are
overlapping and concepts that are specific to the field of second language
acquisition (SLA).
Motivation explains why people select a
particular activity, how long they are willing to persist in it and what effort
they invest in it (Dörnyei, 2001). These three components of motivation
correspond to goals and the initiation and maintenance of learning effort. In the field of SLA a number of different
language learning goals have been proposed. Gardner (Gardner, 1985, 2006;
Gardner & Lambert, 1959; Masgoret & Gardner, 2003) differentiated
instrumental goals, which are associated with the utilitarian values of
speaking another language, from integrative goals, which express students’ wish
to learn the language in order to become integrated into the target language
culture. In the 21st century English, however, has become an
international language serving as a lingua franca in a globalized world (e.g.
Jenkins, 2007; Seidlhofer, 2005; Widdowson, 1993). Therefore the English
language has become separated from its native speakers and their cultures
(Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000). Consequently, a new language learning goal has
emerged: international posture, which includes “interest in foreign or
international affairs, willingness to go overseas to study or work, readiness
to interact with intercultural partners … and a non-ethnocentric attitude
toward different cultures” (Yashima, 2002, ibid, p. 57). Further language
learning goals can also include friendship, travel and knowledge orientations
(Clément & Kruidenier, 1983).
Goals, however, are
only effective motivators if they become internalized to some extent (Deci,
Koestner & Ryan, 1999); an
assumption which is expressed in Deci and Ryan’s (1985) important
distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated
students engage in the learning process because they find it interesting and
enjoyable; whereas extrinsically motivated learners carry out the learning
activity in order to gain a reward or to avoid punishment. In the field of language
learning motivation, Noels (2003) also identified intrinsic language learning
goals, which are related to feelings of enjoyment and enhancement experienced
during the process of language learning.
Although highly
motivating goals are conscious and help learners focus their attention on the
learning task (Zimmerman, 2008), goals also exert their motivational influence
through emotional arousal (Ford, 1992). In educational psychology emotional
arousal is conceptualized either as the intrinsic enjoyment derived from
learning (see e.g. Ryan & Deci, 2000) or as an attitude to the object of
learning (Ajzen, 2005). In the field of L2 motivation, attitudes have been
identified as emotional precursors of the initiation of learning behavior.
Gardner (1985, 2006) identified three important attitudes in his
socio-educational model: attitudes to the target language community, attitudes
to language learning in general, and attitudes toward the learning situation in
particular.
Additional key elements of motivation which
regulate goal setting and affect the translation of goals into action are
personal agency beliefs, which in educational psychology are embodied in two
constructs: self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1986) and self-concept (Shavelson,
Hubner, & Stanton, 1976). Self-efficacy beliefs express one’s views as to
whether one is capable of performing a given learning task and are consequently
future-oriented; whereas self-concept beliefs are based on past experiences and
are broader evaluations of one’s general self-worth or esteem (Bong &
Skaalvik, 2003). In the field of L2 motivation, the best known parallel of
personal agency beliefs is the L2 Motivational Self System Theory proposed by
Dörnyei (2005), who argues that the main driving force of language learning is
the students’ future self-image. His model of motivation contains two
self-related components: Ideal L2 self and Ought-to L2 Self. In this model,
Ideal L2 Self is one’s ideal self-image expressing the wish to become a
competent L2 speaker. The Ought-to L2 Self contains “attributes that one
believes one ought to possess (i.e. various duties, obligations, or
responsibilities) in order to avoid possible negative outcomes” (Dörnyei, 2005,
p. 106) associated with not being able to speak the L2 in question.
No model of
motivation is complete without considering the final outcome of the
motivational processes, which is called volition in educational psychology and
motivated learning behavior in the field of SLA. Volition is defined by Corno
(1993) as a “dynamic system of psychological control processes that protect
concentration and directed effort in the face of personal and/or environmental
distractions, and so aid learning and performance” (Corno, 1993, p. 16). In the field of language learning motivation,
the parallel construct for volition is motivated behavior, which is usually
seen to consist of effort and persistence (e.g. Csizér & Dörnyei, 2005;
Dörnyei, 2001, 2005; Gardner, 1985, 2006).
Motivation is also strongly
influenced by social and contextual factors. Students’ immediate environment:
their family and friends play an important role in goal setting, attitude
formation, and influencing students’ self-efficacy beliefs and the effort and
persistence with which they carry out a learning activity. The effect of milieu
on language learning was recognized in the early work of Gardner (1985; Gardner
& Lambert, 1959), who highlighted the significant effect of parental
encouragement and praise on students’ motivated behavior. Subsequent models of
motivation also included the role of significant others
(Williams & Burden, 1997) and the students’ family in
their model of motivation (Noels, 2001).
The construct of parental encouragement has subsequently been used in a
number of research projects (see e.g. Atay & Kurt, 2010; Csizér &
Dörnyei, 2005; Csizér & Kormos, 2009; Gardner, Masgoret & Tremblay,
1999; Kormos & Csizér, 2008; Ryan, 2009; Taguchi, Magid & Papi, 2009).
Further external influences on motivation include the school environment, in
which the teachers, the peer-group and the instructional materials seem to be
the most influential factors (Dörnyei, 1994).
Most theories of L2
learning motivation, but not all, include all the above-described important
components of motivation: goals, emotional arousal and self-related beliefs,
but some of the models proposed in the field of SLA merely identify and list
these components (e.g. Dörnyei, 1994; Dörnyei & Ottó, 1998; Williams &
Burden, 1997), and only a few make an attempt to describe in detail how these
motivational constructs interact (e.g. Csizér & Kormos, 2009; Dörnyei &
Csizér, 1995; Noels, 2001; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995). Even in models of
motivation which consider the interplay of goals, attitudes and self-efficacy
beliefs, these constructs are placed on different stages of the motivational
system and researchers make contradictory assumptions as to how they influence
motivated learning behavior.
In our research we
used structural equation modeling to gain more insight into the interaction
between language learning goals, attitudes and students’ self-related beliefs
in three groups of English language learners in Chile. In our study we also
compared the models for the investigated sub-samples to detect age- and
group-related variation in language learning motivation by means of multi-group
structural equation modeling. One of the inherent difficulties involved in
examining motivation in quantitative research is that one needs to restrict and
simplify the number of factors that can be analyzed within a single study.
Therefore, in our research we decided to represent contextual factors in
language learning motivation only by parental encouragement, which expresses
the views of the learners’ milieu concerning the value of language learning. In
order to be able to compare our results with studies focusing on the role of
self-concept in L2 learning motivation, we decided to use a similar instrument
as in previous work conducted in Hungary (Csizér & Kormos, 2008; Kormos
& Csizér 2008) and in North Asian contexts (Ryan, 2009; Taguchi, Magid
& Papi, 2009).
Method
Research assumptions
Our
hypothetical model is presented in Figure 1. The model is based on previous
research in the field of L2 learning motivation and educational psychology
outlined above and contains four levels: social influence (expressed by
parental encouragement), goals (measured by knowledge orientation and
international posture), attitudes and self-related beliefs at a joint level and
finally motivated behaviour. In accordance with Dörnyei’s (2005) model as well
as with previous studies using a similar instrument (Csizér & Kormos, 2009;
Kormos & Csizér 2008; Ryan, 2009; Taguchi et al., 2009), three antecedent
variables were linked to the criterion measure: the Ideal L2 self , the Ought-to
L2 self and language learning
attitudes. As the Ought-to L2 self dimension supposedly contains extrinsic
motivational forces, we hypothesised that it would be affected by parental encouragement, that is,
parents’ views on the importance and necessity of language learning, knowledge orientation, which covers the
instrumental value of English with the help of which students can gain more
knowledge about the world, and International
Posture, that is, students’ views of the role of English as a lingua
franca. As for the Ideal L2 self, we
proposed that language learning
attitudes, International Posture and the Ought-to L2 self will have an influence on students’ future
oriented self-guide and self-efficacy beliefs. We postulated that positive
emotional experiences concerning L2 learning will help the formation of
students’ images of themselves as competent language users, and learning goals
such as the international position of English combined with respondents’
Ought-to L2 selves will also contribute to the process of developing salient L2
self-related beliefs. Previous empirical studies have also shown that milieu
plays an important role in forming and sustaining students’ L2 learning
motivation (see for example Atay & Kurt, 2010; Csizér & Dörnyei, 2005;
Dörnyei, Csizér & Németh, 2006; Gardner, Masgoret & Tremblay, 1999,
Ryan, 2009; Taguchi, et al., 2009); therefore we hypothesised that parental
encouragement would contribute to the participants’ L2 learning experience, knowledge
orientation and their Ought-to L2 selves.
Insert Figure 1 here
Participants
This study
investigated language learners in Santiago, the capital of Chile. Santiago is
the largest city in the country, where more than a quarter of the population
lives. In addition, the majority of the population is monolingual, with 99% of
the population Spanish speakers, and with a literacy rate of 95.7%. Santiago
has similarities to major metropolitan cities in Europe, with a growing economy
and as a regional financial centre has a great deal of business contact with
North America and Europe (WolframAlpha Curated Data, 2009).
In our
research we used criterion-sampling. As regards secondary school students, we
surveyed students from four schools in Santiago. Schools in Chile can generally
be considered to be one of three main types:
a)
Municipal or State schools which are totally financed
by the state.
b)
Mixed funding schools in which the government
subsidises part of the students’ expenses and the rest is paid by the parents
or different kinds of
foundations/institutions,
etc.
c)
Private schools in which parents pay the full fee.
The government also divides schools into rural or urban and
according to the number of students each school has. Another division to
consider is according to the income bracket of the inhabitants in the area
where the schools are located: Low (A), Lower Medium (B), Medium (C), Higher
Medium (D), High (E). The four schools surveyed can be classified according to
the above criteria in as follows1:
1.
School A is a religious, urban, mixed funding school
corresponding to the High bracket (E) – it is located in downtown Santiago.
2.
School B is an urban, state funded school corresponding
to the Higher Medium bracket (D) – it is located in a higher middle class
residential neighbourhood.
3.
School C is an urban, state-funded school corresponding
to the Higher Medium bracket (D) – it is located in a higher middle class
residential neighbourhood.
4.
School D is an urban, state funded school corresponding
to the Higher Medium bracket (D) – it is located in a higher middle class
business and residential neighbourhood.
All together 201 learners, 49 male and 152 female, responded
to our questions in the secondary school sample. The average age of students
was 14.51 years (see Table 1), and students’ English language proficiency
typically ranges from A2 to B1 in Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR)
(Council of Europe, 2001) at this age in the state schools considered.
University students were selected from a range
of subjects and university types – both in the public and private sector. All
students were studying English, some as optional parts of their degree courses
and some on compulsory courses which form part of their programme. 174
university students responded to our questions. The students’ average age was 21.8
years, and 69 of them were male and 105 female. Most students in the sample
were in the 3rd or 4th year of their programmes and
consequently from B1 to C1 in CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001) levels. It is a
feature of the university system in Santiago that the great majority of
students continue to live at home whilst studying for their university degree.
We also surveyed
students at two branches of a private language institution in Santiago. Almost
all these students were adults, with an average age of 31.1. All students have
elected to take private English language classes, or been requested to do so by
their employers. The adult classes ranged from beginner to upper-intermediate,
that is, studying courses between A1 and B2 level in the CEFR, and most participants
were studying for workrelated reasons. The respondents in this category
generally came from middle and lowermiddle class social backgrounds, and the
majority of these participants were white-collar workers and secretaries.
Insert Table 1 here
Instruments
Each of the
latent variables in the model was measured by several five-point scale
Likert-type questionnaire items. The questionnaire used in this study was
identical to the one applied in two previous studies conducted in Hungary in
the recent years (Csizér & Kormos, 2009; Kormos & Csizér 2008). This
instrument was originally developed in collaboration with researchers
investigating the role of Ideal L2 self in language learning motivation (see
e.g. Ryan, 2009; Taguchi et al., 2009), and it shared a sufficient number of
items with their questionnaire to allow for the comparability of findings
across language learning settings. The items for the questionnaire were adapted
from several sources: a previous motivation questionnaire used by Dörnyei and
Csizér in a variety of Hungarian research projects (for an overview see Dörnyei
et al., 2006) and from a questionnaire by Ryan (2005). These previously-used
questionnaires also included items originally developed by Gardner (1985) and
Clement and Kruidenier (1983). The questionnaire consisted of 40 Likert-scale
items and a 10 item section containing multiple choice and short answer
questions that provided background information about the participants. Below we
give a brief summary of the definitions of the latent motivational concepts
that the questionnaire intended to measure with sample items. We also indicate
the number of items these scales originally consisted of.
•
Parental
encouragement (4 items out of which 3 were originally developed by Gardner
(1985) and one additional item from (Dörnyei et al., 2006): the extent to which
parents support their children in studying English. Example: My parents really
encourage me to study English. (Cronbach α = .83)
•
L2
learning attitude (4 items out of which 3 were originally developed by
Gardner (1985) and one additional item from (Dörnyei et al., 2006): the extent
to which students like learning English. Example: I really enjoy learning
English. (Cronbach α = .84)
•
Knowledge
orientation (4 items out of which 3 originally developed by Clement &
Kruidenier, 1983 and an additional new item): students’ views on how learning
English will help them gain information about the world around them.
Example: Studying English will
help me to become more knowledgeable. (Cronbach α = .79)
•
International
posture (4 questions originally developed by Ryan, 2005): students’ attitudes to English as an
international language. Example: Studying
English will help me to
understand people from all over the world. (Cronbach α = .78)
•
Ideal L2
self (9 questions originally developed by Ryan, 2005): students’ views of
themselves as successful L2 speakers. Example: I like to think of myself as
someone who will be able to speak English. (Cronbach α = .76)
•
Ought-to
L2 Self (6 questions originally developed by Ryan, 2005): students’
perceptions of how important learning English is in the opinion of significant
others. Example: If I fail to learn English, I will be letting other people
down. (Cronbach α =.75 )
•
Motivated
learning behaviour (9 items 4 of which originally developed by Gardner
(1985) and 4 items from Dörnyei et al., 2006): students’ efforts and
persistence in learning English. Example: I am willing to work hard at learning
English. (Cronbach α =.80)
Procedures
The instrument was translated into three Spanish forms from
the English version used in the original study. The versions of the
questionnaire designed for the three learner groups were almost identical in
content, with minor changes to certain questions to reflect peer / parental
influences and appropriate biodata-gathering questions. Back-translation was
used with two pairs of bilingual translators and a single version was agreed on
in consultation with all four translators based on the similarity between the
versions re-translated into English, and the original English version. The
three versions were piloted on two students (one of 18 years old, and the other
of 53). Problematic items were reworded and the final versions agreed on by the
two translators who had performed the English – Spanish translation from the
original.
The final
versions of the questionnaire were personally delivered to the secondary
schools, universities and language institute branches, where a person who
agreed to take charge of the administration of the questionnaires distributed
them among teachers and collected the filled-in questionnaires.
Analysis
In order to draw up a
comprehensive model of motivation of Chilean learners of English,
multiple-group structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied. SEM is based on
a combination of factor analysis, path analysis and regression analysis, and
consequently allows for the establishment of latent variables from
questionnaire items and as such provides statistical data on the validity of
measurement scales (Bentler, 1995). SEM is also able to test relationships and
interactions between latent variables as well as to detect differences in these
relationships across sub-groups in the sample. Therefore, we applied this
statistical analysis for constructing factors, verifying links among them and
for analyzing the differences in the links in the three samples of participants
involved in the study. We used the software AMOS 4.0.
First, measurement models were drawn up in
accordance with the earlier factor analytical results reported in Csizér and
Dörnyei (2005), Dörnyei et al. (2006) and Csizér and Kormos (2009) on similar
datasets in different contexts. Following this, the various latent variables
were combined into a full structural
model on the basis of theoretical considerations as well as correlational
and regression analyses conducted in the Hungarian context (Csizér &
Kormos, 2009; Kormos & Csizér 2008). The three models for secondary school
students, university students and adult learners were compared by a multi-group
procedure, that is, the three models were fitted simultaneously in order to
assess possible differences in the structural models. To assess the overall
model fit, we used indices most often advised in the SEM literature (Byrne,
2001) and besides the chi-square statistics and the CMIN/df (chisquare divided
by the degrees of freedom), we report additional indices: Comparative Fit Index
(CFI) (Fan, Thompson, & Wang, 1999; Hu & Bentler, 1999), the
Bentler-Bonett normed fit index (NFI), the Tucker-Lewis coefficient (TLI), the
root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) (Browne & Cudeck, 1993; Fan
et al., 1999; Hu and Bentler, 1999),
and the Parsimony-adjusted Comparative Fit Index (PCFI). We have compared the
various paths within a multi-group framework with the help of the critical ratios
(C.R.) (Byrne, 2001). When C.R.s values were above the recommended 1.96 (Byrne,
2001), we concluded that there is a significant group-related difference
concerning the given path.
Results
The structural equation
models
As a first step, the initial model was submitted to
evaluation using maximum likelihood estimation simultaneously for the three
sub-samples (secondary school pupils, university students and adult language
learners) (Byrne, 2001), as a result of which we found that although the
hypothetical model provided acceptable joint model-data fit indices for the
samples (e.g., CFI= .980 and chi square/df = 1.92, for the university
students), there were four relations that turned out to be non-significant for
each sample (Parental encouragement
àInternational posture,
International posture à Ought-to L2 self, Knowledge
orientation à Ought-to L2 self and Ought-to L2 self à Motivated learning behaviour), thus these paths were
removed from the initial models and from the multi-group analysis. In addition
to this, one additional modification had to be applied to the model describing
secondary school students, as in their case a new path was included into the
model (Parental encouragement à Ideal L2 self) as well as an
additional non-significant path being removed (Ought-to L2 self à Ideal L2 self). As a result, the final model contains 10
significant relationships for each of our sub-samples, although the model
describing secondary school students is different from the other two models
concerning the two paths described above. Next, the final models of the three
sub-samples were combined into a single multi-group model and the subsequent
multigroup procedure was carried out. Figures 2a-c contain the schematic
representation of the final model with the standardised estimates for each
sample studied, and Table 2 presents various joint goodness of fit measures for
the multi-group analysis.
Insert Figures 2a-c and
Table 2 here
As can be seen
in Table 2, the Chi Square/df ratio is above the usually recommended value of 2
(Byrne, 1989); however, as we pointed out earlier, it is advisable to rely on
more than one fit index, therefore, we also examined alternative fit indices,
which all indicate a very good fit for the joint models, and thus we can
conclude that the models in Figure 2a-c provide an adequate representation of
our data. As a next step, we compared the paths in the structural model in
order to find out whether there are any significant differences between the
structural models for the three investigated samples. There are several paths
for which the critical ratio for differences showed significant difference.
Between the secondary school and university students there were three
significantly different paths: Language learning attitudes à International Posture (C. R.=3.780), Parental encouragement
à Ought-to L2 self (C. R.=2.997) and
International posture à Ideal L2 self (C. R.=
-2.831). In terms of differences between secondary school students and young
adult language learners four paths proved to be significantly different:
Parental encouragement à Knowledge orientation (C.R.=
-2.977), Parental encouragement à Language learning attitudes
(C.R.= -2.309), Language learning attitudes à
International posture (C.R.= 2.472) and International Posture à Ideal L2 self (C.R.= -3.309). As regards university
students and young adult language learners again four paths produced
significantly different results: Parental encouragement à
Knowledge orientation (C.R.= -2.109), Parental encouragement à Language learning attitudes (C.R.= 2.173), Parental
encouragement à Ought-to L2 self (C. R.=3.013) and
Language learning attitudes à Ideal L2 self (C.R.=
-2.214). Figure 3 shows the comparison of the coefficients across the models
for the three sub-samples.
Insert Figure 3 here
Discussion
The role of the Ideal
L2 self and attitudes
The models
lend general support for the importance of self-related beliefs in L2 learning
motivation. In interpreting our models, however, it is also necessary to
consider the questionnaire items that constitute the Ideal L2 self construct.
In his conceptualization of the Ideal L2 self, Dörnyei (2009) claims that
mental imagery, that is, the ability to imagine oneself as a successful L2 user
is core to the construct. In our models, however, only one item that explicitly
involves a statement referring to imagination could be included in the scale of
Ideal L2
self (“Whenever I think of my future career, I imagine myself being able
to use English”) because the
remaining four questionnaire items did not describe this latent variable
adequately in the investigated sample. Three other items referred to distal
future goals (“English will help you in your future career”, “When I think about my future, it is
important that I use English” and “The
things I want to do in the future require me to speak English”), whereas the
fifth item (“I like to think of myself as someone who will be able to speak English”) expressed a self-efficacy belief (Bandura,
1986). Two items out of five included the expression “being able to”, which
suggests that the Ideal L2 self construct in our models is a combination of
future-oriented goals and perceptions of one’s ability to reach these goals.
Our models seem to indicate that although the vision of the future is part of
the Ideal L2 self, in our research context, the Ideal L2 self needs to be
reconceptualized as a future second language self-guide, which includes distal
personal goals related to L2 learning and one’s beliefs about being able to
realize these goals.
The models
also show that in the case of second language learning, future self-guides have
the potential to influence effort and persistence invested in acquiring a
desired level of second language competence. Given the fact that in the case of
secondary school students, the goals embodied in these future self-guides are
quite distant, it is remarkable that the link between motivated behavior and
Ideal L2 self is still very strong. This suggests that the investigated sample
of secondary school students in this South-American context has managed to
translate their future goals into proximal goals and has developed an elaborate
action plan for reaching these goals. In the lack of these, distant future goals
would remain fantasies and would not initiate action (see Markus & Ruvolo,
1989; Miller & Brickman, 2004). Even
though career-related goals are not distant for university students, we can
detect a similar strength of relationship between the Ideal L2 self and
motivated behavior in this sample, which suggests a similarly efficient process
of goal- and self-realization for this group of participants. The relatively
strong link between the Ideal L2 self and motivated behavior in our study is in
line with findings in general educational psychology, which have demonstrated
consistent relationships between self-concept and motivational variables as
well as between self-efficacy and effort and persistence (for a review of these
studies see Bong and Skalvik, 2004).
Another core
component in our models is Attitudes to the L2. The items constituting this
scale all express enjoyment derived from language learning (“I really enjoy
learning English”, “I find learning English really interesting” and “Learning
English is really great.”). Attitudes to L2 can be regarded as affective
reactions that partly derive from one’s selfappraisal (Skaalvik, 1997). Bong
and Skaalvik (2004) argue that this affective dimension of one’s self-efficacy
has important motivating power. Our results also suggest that irrespective of
age, attitudes to L2 learning have a strong influence on effort and
persistence.
The models
also reveal that language learning attitudes are inter-related with the Ideal
L2 self. It is interesting to observe that enjoyment derived from learning
English exerts a significantly more important influence on the Ideal L2 self of
university students than for the other two groups of participants. We might
hypothesize that for secondary school students language learning attitudes
might be strongly influenced by the instructional context, and their attitudes
might be related to English being as one of the school subjects. Moreover, we
can also observe that the Ideal L2 self of this generation is the most strongly
related to international orientation. Thus the views they hold about the
international role of English has considerably stronger influence on their
self-concept than their attitudes to language learning (see below for a more
detailed discussion). As for the adult learners in language institutes, their
Ideal L2 self seems to be more self-contained. Due to the fact that these
students are fully aware of the pragmatic value of L2 competence, they find it
easier to maintain positive future self-guides independent of the enjoyment
they derive from the learning process.
The role of Ought-to L2
self and parental encouragement
As opposed to
studies in Japanese and Chinese contexts (Taguchi et al., 2009), we did not
find a significant link between students’ Ought-to L2 self and motivated
behavior. The scale of Ought-to L2 self primarily expresses what views the
participants’ milieu holds about the relevance of L2 competence for the future,
hence the strong link with parental encouragement. The Ought-to L2 self is
similar to what Ryan, Connell and Grolnick (1992) call an external regulator,
and it does not contribute to the motivational effort in the investigated
sub-samples. Previous educational research conducted mainly in the USA has
consistently demonstrated that unless students internalize the goals of their
social environment, external regulation plays a limited role in enhancing
motivated behavior (see
Deci, et al., 1991). The
comparison of our results in Chile and in Hungary with the outcomes of studies
in North Asian contexts (Taguchi et al, 2009) reveals that in certain cultures
where socio-educational factors put a great pressure on students’ achievement
and where foreign language education is highly exam-oriented (e.g. China and
Japan), it is possible that the Ought-to L2 self has an effect on effort and
persistence in language learning.
The results of our
study indicate that the internalization of the values of the milieu into the
learners’ self-concept seems to be related to maturation. Whereas for secondary
school students the Ought-to L2 self and the Ideal L2 self are unrelated
constructs, a link between these two scales can be established for university
students and adult language learners. Parallel to this, it can be observed that
the relationship between parental encouragement and the Ideal L2 self
disappears for these two groups of language learners; a finding which is
similar to the results of studies conducted in North Asia (China and Japan -
Taguchi et al., 2009) and in Hungary (Csizér & Kormos, 2009, Kormos &
Csizér 2008). Based on these results, we can conclude that for the
participating teenagers in the Chilean context, parents’ views on the
importance of language learning and their support might positively influence future
self-guides including judgments of self-efficacy. Past puberty, however,
students’ milieu plays a role in shaping students’ internalized self-concept
indirectly with the mediation of the Ought-to L2 self.
Interestingly, in Chile and in Hungary the
link between the Ought-to L2 self and parental encouragement is considerably
stronger than in the North Asian countries investigated in similar studies. We
might speculate that whereas for the surveyed learners in South-America and in
Central Europe, the major source of influence on how students should see
themselves as language learners is the family and other members of their close
social context such as friends and peers, in China and Japan, there are
additional factors outside the family that exert an influence on Ought-to L2
self such as educational requirements (primarily exams) and pressures to
compete with peers (Magid, personal communication 24th June, 2009).
Although parental
encouragement has a limited effect on the Ideal L2 self, that is, on
self-concept and efficacy beliefs, it seems to play an important role in
influencing enjoyment and pleasure derived from language learning, in other
words, L2 learning attitudes. Moreover, the results show that this influence is
the strongest in the case of the university students. The Chilean university
student sample might be strongly influenced by their parents’ value system due
to the fact that these students come from families of high socio-economic
status, where education is highly valued. Moreover, the vast majority of
university students in Chile live at home with their parents throughout their
university lives, and thus have the constant influence of parental values and
expectations. In contrast, the secondary school students are at an age where
they start asserting independence from their parents, and thus their parents’
views and encouragement have somewhat weaker effect on their attitudes. Young adult learners are understandably more
independent of their parents’ views than the younger generation, nevertheless
even for this generation, attitudes seem to have strong contextual antecedents.
This might be partly due to the fact that in the Chilean society knowing
English might be a stepping stone to higher social status. The relatively
strong link between parental encouragement and knowledge orientation in the
secondary school and university student population also reveals that parents’
active support in language learning is instrumental in forming their views on
the role of English as a means of gaining knowledge about the world.
The role of language
learning goals
In our survey we measured two motivational orientations:
knowledge orientation and international posture. Both of these are long-term
and distal goals in language learning and primarily embody goals that can be
characterized as instrumental. Knowledge orientation expresses the drive to
learn the language in order to be a better-educated person who knows more about
the world and who can gain information with the help of English. International posture
describes the students’ intention to use English as a lingua franca and
communicate with other people in the world. Both of these orientations point to
the very important role of English as an International Language (Jenkins, 2007;
Seidlhofer, 2005; Widdowson, 1993) in the Chilean context. This is especially
interesting because the first language of the students, Spanish, is widely
spoken in the South-American continent, and Spanish can also be regarded as a
lingua franca in this setting. Nevertheless, similar to contexts where
students’ first language is spoken by only very few people in the world such as
in Hungary (Csizér & Kormos, 2009, Kormos & Csizér 2008), the
investigated Chilean learners also seem to have a strong motif to learn English
in order to become a member of the globalized international English-speaking
community. This points to the fact that for the young generations of language
learners regardless of the ethnolinguistic vitality of their L1, English plays
a highly important role as a mediating language in the often borderless and
globalized cultural environment they are part of (see Lamb, 2001, 2009;
Yashima, 2009).
The models
also reveal that the Ideal L2 self of the students is strongly influenced by
International Posture. The results suggest that from among the learning goals,
it is the wish to use English as a means of international communication that
has a direct link to students’ future self-guides. The strength of the link,
however, varies significantly across the three learner groups. We might explain
this strong relationship for the young adults with reference to the fact that
their primary goal in learning English is to be able to use it in their work,
which involves communication with speakers of other languages as well as native
speakers of English. Their future self-concept thus partly involves being a
member of an international community of English-speaking professionals. As for
the young generation, their motif to learn English is in all likelihood
associated with the wish to become part of the global community of teenagers
interacting in the borderless environment of the Internet and information
technology. The university students seem to be in a position in between these
two generations. Due to the study requirements at university, they might not
have the time to participate in the internet-community as intensively as at a
younger age, but they do not fully identify with the professional L2 speaking
community either yet.
An emerging model of
motivation
We believe that the
fact that a range of studies have been conducted using similar instruments in
the past few years in a number of very diverse learning contexts (see the
collection of studies in Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009) allows us to draw
conclusions concerning the general structure of L2 learning motivation. We
propose here a primarily learner-centered model of motivation, which is based
on work in educational psychology; nevertheless socialcontextual and
instructional factors can also be incorporated in the model (see Figure 4). In
our model motivation consists of goal, attitude and self-guide components,
which display reciprocal relationships with each other. Our model is an
extension of Dörnyei’s (2005) theory of the motivational self-system in that it
also includes goals and social contextual factors and describes the interaction
between these constituents of motivation. The proposed interactive model of
motivation is also different from that of Tremblay and Gardner (2005) in that
it allows for reciprocal relations between motivational constructs, and it
places goals and attitudes at separate levels of the motivational system.
We argue that
at the top of the inter-active system of motivation we can find motivated
behavior, which acts as a volitional system controlling effort and persistence
invested in language learning and which is linked to actual language learning
behavior. At the next level, students’ self-guides and language learning
attitudes can be located. Self-guides include the learners’ own internalized views
of the value and importance of L2 learning (Ideal L2 self) and self-efficacy
beliefs as well as the external views of their environment (Ought-to L2 self).
As shown in the case of the surveyed Chilean sample, attitudes and Ideal L2
self interact with each other, and Ideal L2 self and Ought-to L2 self can also
be related for certain generations of language learners. The strength of links
between self-guides and attitudes as well as between self-guides, attitudes and
motivated behavior varies across socio-cultural and educational contexts. For
example, in certain Asian countries, such as China or Japan, Oughtto L2 self
might affect motivated behavior, but in other settings such as the one in Chile
or in Hungary this influence might not exist. Although our research was not
suitable for establishing causal relations, it is possible that the link
between self-guides and attitudes and motivated behavior is reciprocal:
increased effort might enhance self-related beliefs and foster positive
attitudes but also positive images of oneself as a language learner and
favorable attitudes to the processes of learning might induce more effort and
higher levels of persistence.
Insert Figure 4 here
We propose that the
third layer of the interactive model includes distal goals of language learning
such as international posture and knowledge orientation as well as other
possible instrumental and integrative goals depending on the context of
language learning. These goals foster the establishment of self-guides and
attitudes, but self-related beliefs and language learning experience can also
modify language learning goals. Different types of learning goals might have
equal status (see Taguchi et al, 2009) or might be sub-ordinated to other goals
such as in our models, where knowledge orientation was found to have an
indirect effect on attitudes and self-concept with the mediation of
international posture.
As shown in our models and in other recent
work on motivation in different contexts
(Atay & Kurt, 2010; Csizér
& Dörnyei, 2005; Csizér & Kormos, 2008; Gardner, Masgoret &
Tremblay, 1999, Kormos & Csizér, 2008; Ryan, 2009; Taguchi, et al. 2009),
the immediate social environment of students, which is represented by milieu
and parental encouragement, is a higher-order factor, which affects learning
goals as well students’ attitude, self-efficacy beliefs and self-concept.
Social context and parental encouragement, however, do not have a direct link
to motivated behavior, as effort and persistence can only be regulated by the learners
themselves (Deci & Ryan, 1985). For
the majority of language learners, and even for young adults, parents and the
family are the mediators of the societal and cultural values and norms,
although in all likelihood, peers and friends also play a similarly important
role in conveying motivational influences. Students’ self-guides and attitudes
to language learning as well as their learning goals are also affected by the
instructional setting (Csizér et al.
2010). The influence of milieu
and educational context on goals, self-related beliefs and attitudes is mostly
likely to be unidirectional although it is possible that students’ positive
attitudes to language learning might change the views of their milieu about
language learning.
Conclusion
In our study we investigated the internal structure of
language learning motivation of three different age groups of students in
Chile: secondary school students, university students and young adult learners
by means of a questionnaire. The structural equation models showed that
self-related beliefs play a highly important role in L2 learning motivation,
but we also found that externally and internally mediated future self-guides
enter into different interactions with each other and with motivated behavior in
the case of the different groups of language learners. The models revealed that
the most important learning goal of the surveyed students was related to the
status of English as a lingua franca, and the wish to use English as a means of
international communication had a strong direct relationship with students’
future selfguides. The strength of the link, however, was found to vary
significantly across the three learner groups depending on the salience of the
imagined international community for the given generation. Additionally,
external influences stemming from the students’ immediate social environment,
the family, also had a differential effect on language learning goals,
attitudes and future-self-guides.
In our paper we drew
up a comprehensive model of language learning motivation, in which four
learner-internal factors: goals, affective reactions (attitudes), self-guides
and selfefficacy beliefs interact with each other. We also argued, however,
that these factors are hierarchically layered with relation to each other, with
self-guides, self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes having direct links to goals,
and motivated behavior influencing effort and persistence invested in language
learning through the mediation of attitudes and self-related beliefs. We
pointed out that the learners are situated in the systems of their social,
cultural and instructional setting and these external factors influence the
components of learner internal motivation.
Our study,
however, is not without limitations. Similarly to previous research in this
field, our participants primarily came from middle- and upper-class
backgrounds, which might be the reason why one of the primarily learning goals
for the students was associated with the international status of the English language.
It would also be very important to examine the language learning motivation of
students in socially disadvantaged settings. The lack of economic resources
often deprives students of sufficient learning opportunities, and the social
influences for these students might mediate different learning goals and
potentially have negative effects on their future self-guides and self-efficacy
beliefs. Longitudinal studies could also yield an insight into the causal
relationships among motivational effort, selfconcept and achievement. Finally we also need to mention that the
female participants in the study outnumbered the male learners. This might also
have influenced our results as gender might have an impact on the internal
structure of motivation.
Notes
1. Research on the motivation of students from social classes
is regrettably scarce. The main reason why we did not include students from
lower social classes was that we wanted to make direct comparisons with work
using similar instruments, and these works have been confined to middle-class
secondary students, university students and adult learners.
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Table 1. A summary
of participant characteristics
|
|
N
|
Male
|
Female
|
|
Sample 1
|
|
|
|
|
Secondary school students
|
201
|
49
|
152
|
|
Sample 2
|
|
|
|
|
University students
|
174
|
69
|
105
|
|
Sample 3
|
|
|
|
|
Language Institute students
|
143
|
63
|
80
|
|
Total
|
518
|
181
|
337
|
Table 2
Joint selected fit measures for the final models
Chi Square / df ratio 2.535
CFI .970
NFI .951 NNFI .964 RMSEA .052
PCFI .812
Figure 2a The final model for secondary
school students with standardised estimates
Figure 2b The final model for university
students with standardised estimates
Figure 3 The comparison of the coefficients among the models for
secondary school learners, university students and young adult language
learners
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