Measuring Chinese EFL learners’ motivation and anxiety when completing a video narration task: Initial steps in designing two questionnaires

Abstract

This article reports on the process of generating questionnaire items that would contribute to measuring two individual difference variables, i.e., task motivation and task anxiety, within a task context. Thirty-seven Chinese learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) completed a video narration task, and subsequently took part in semi-structured interviews and stimulated recalls concerning their motivational and anxiety status during task completion. Through thematic analysis of the collected data, emerging themes related to motivation and anxiety within a task context were identified. The study revealed a range of learner-internal/-external factors serving as either pulling or dragging forces of task motivation; task anxiety was manifested by a range of triggers that caused anxious feelings in learners and impacted on learners as they completed the task. The identified themes served as the bases of two questionnaires measuring task motivation and task anxiety that were validated in a follow-up study.