Motivation for learning English in the immersion environment of an international school in Japan

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe present study examined motivation toward English learning among students at an international school in Japan. The motivation of 112 elementary school students, including those with English and Japanese as an L1, and those bilingual in English and Japanese, was analyzed based on self-determination theory. The results showed a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, including three types of regulation (viz., identified, introjected, and external regulation) on the self-determination continuum. For all three language groups, self-determined orientations constituted the highest motivation for studying English, and English L1 participants were more enthusiastic than Japanese L1 participants about studying English. Whereas a number of studies have suggested that Japanese L1 students’ motivation toward English learning decreases with grade level, this study found that participants’ intrinsic motivation did not decrease significantly. This finding may be due to the immersion environment, in which Japanese L1 participants learnt English together with English L1 participants, whose intrinsic motivation significantly increased from the middle to upper grades. It may also be due to the opportunity to use English with both L1 and L2 peers, allowing L2 learners to visualize target language use in the English-Japanese immersion environment.