Demystifying the relationship between parental investment in learners’ English learning and learners’ L2 motivational self system in the Chinese context: A Bourdieusian capital perspective

Abstract

Research has shown that language learning motivation is multifaceted and influenced by both external and internal factors. An important but under-researched factor, parental involvement, requires attention. Therefore, the current study drew from Bourdieu’s (1986) capital theory to develop the concept of parental investment, categorized into parental investment beliefs (PIBeLs) and parental investment behaviors (PIBeHs), and examined its complex relationship with learners’ L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS; Dörnyei, 2005). A total of 1424 senior high school students and their parents, representing 11 schools in two capital cities in northeastern China, participated in the study. Results from the questionnaire and interview data show a linear relationship between PIBeLs, PIBeHs and learners’ L2MSS, with PIBeLs having a direct effect on PIBeHs and an indirect effect on L2MSS mediated by PIBeHs. From Bourdieusian capital perspective, learners’ motivation, a disposition formed from the flow of parents’ capital invested in their children’s English learning, constitutes a socially constructed habitus.