Examining the Effects of L2 Self-Guides on Chinese University EFL Learners’ Attitudes Towards Classroom Language Choice

Abstract

Second language (L2) learning motivation has been widely acknowledged as a crucial factor in the success of instructed L2 acquisition. However, the effects of L2 motivation on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ classroom language choice (CLC) are relatively under-explored based on a systematic theoretical framework. Recently, a growing trend towards bi/multilingualism has aroused controversy over the current English-only policy in Chinese EFL higher education. To inform a more motivating classroom language decision, this study, grounded on the framework of the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2009), aims to investigate learners’ attitudes towards the English-only approach and first language (L1) use in the EFL classroom and examine the effects of L2 self-guides on learners’ CLC attitudes. Following a mixed methods approach, an adapted questionnaire was distributed to 252 Chinese first-year undergraduate EFL learners. Follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted among twenty respondents to seek further explanations for their responses. The descriptive, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the relationship between L2 self-guides and attitudes towards CLC. Through thematic coding, qualitative data were analysed to supplement quantitative results and explore the explanatory power of L2 self-guides on learners’ CLC attitudes. The findings reveal students’ general preference for the appropriate use of L1 and suggest that ideal L2 self and ought-to L2 self were correlated with and could positively predict learners’ attitudes towards English immersion as well as L1 use respectively. The different motivational characteristics of ideal and ought-to L2 selves identified in this study may inform education practitioners of a translanguaging pedagogical practice and call for a language policy-making and curriculum-planning process taking students’ motivational states along with CLC attitudes into thorough consideration.