Assessing middle school dual language learners' and English-only students' motivation to participate in classroom discussion

Abstract

This study investigated the constructs contributing to individual differences in Dual Language Learners' (DLL) and English-only (EO) students' (M age = 12.19; SD = 0.325) motivation to participate in classroom discussion. Study 1 describes the development of a 20-item measure, the Motivation for Classroom Discussion Questionnaire (MCD-Q). A focus group (Study 1a n = 11) evaluated the MCD-Q items. Data reduction techniques reduced the items to five motivational constructs (value, language-efficacy, extrinsic motivation, social motivation, and interest) for a sample of DLLs and EO students (Study 1b n = 208). Study 2 (n = 125) examined the relation between dimensions of students' motivation, language status (DLL, EO), and their audio-recorded amount of talk during English Language Arts. Study 2 demonstrated that of students who have high confidence in their language abilities (i.e., high language-efficacy), those who identified as EO students were more likely to engage in a greater amount of talk during classroom discussions than students who identified as DLLs.