AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARD LEARNING JAPANESE LANGUAGE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivation and attitudes of students in secondary schools (G.C.E. Advanced Level classes) towards learning Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) in Sri Lanka. Further, it examines whether JFL students are instrumentally or integratively motivated to study Japanese. This study adapted a quantitative research paradigm and used a questionnaire for collection of data. The study focuses on investigating the two important social psychological variables introduced in Gardner’s socio educational model, which are the instrumental motivation and integrative motivation. The international version (2004) of Gardner's Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) was used to examine the students’ attitudes and motivation levels. A systematic sampling was used under the complex probability sampling method. The results discovered that the integrative motivation of the students was slightly greater than the instrumental motivation. Further, it was found that the students had positive attitudes towards learning situation which are language course and the language teacher. The findings shows that JFL learners in G.C.E. Advanced level classes were less likely to hold utilitarian and academic reasons for learning Japanese. However, the results proved that their attitudes towards the Japanese language community and its members were highly positive. Finally, the study introduces some pedagogical implications that would help to enhance the students’ motivation and attitudes. Article visualizations: