L2 motivation in foreign language learning

Abstract

This study, which involved 130 US fourth to ninth graders enrolled in Chinese as a foreign language classrooms, intended to test Dornyei’s L2 Motivation Self System and the seven motivational constructs identified in his previous study, and investigate whether the constructs found in this study differ based on the following differences: (a) gender, (b) grade level, and (c) starting age of learning a foreign language. This study found four motivational constructs: instrumentality-dominant, attitudes toward the L2 speaker/community-dominant, learners’ perception of their parents’ proficiency in Chinese, and milieu. In addition, this study found a significant interactive effect between grade level and starting age of learning a foreign language. The younger learners in the foreign language late starter group perceived their parents as having higher proficiency in Chinese than how the older learners in the late starter group perceived their parents.