Toward a Better Understanding of Language Learning Motivation in a Study Abroad Context: An Investigation Among Chinese English as a Foreign Language Learners.

Zhen Yue,Kai Zhao,Yaru Meng,Lin Wu,Xi Qian

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.855592

Abstract

Motivation has been recognized as a vital component in successfully learning a second or foreign language. However, research on language learners’ motivation in a study abroad context requires more attention in an era in which international mobility is becoming a new normal. This study investigated 217 Chinese overseas university students’ L2 motivation during their one-year postgraduate study in the United Kingdom. by examining a range of motivational variables in relation to their motivated English language learning behaviors. Integrating results from both questionnaires and interviews from nine participating students, the study revealed that international posture showed the strongest positive power, followed by the ideal L2 self, in explaining the learners’ willingness to communicate, frequency of communication, and intended learning effort. Additionally, instrumentality and parental encouragement exerted prominent promotional influence in shaping their intended learning effort. However, the ought-to L2 self-displayed a significant negative impact on their L2 learning in this study abroad context, and the role of attitudes toward L2 speakers/community and culture was not evident in this case. The findings shed light on a more comprehensive understanding of L2 motivation in a study abroad context, and offer insightful implications for English as a Foreign Language education in cultivating language learners’ motivation to prepare for study abroad.

Highlights

By focusing on 217 Chinese overseas university students’ English language learning outside the instructional settings in the local community in the United Kingdom, the current study examined the complex impacts of various motivational variables on their motivated L2 learning grounded in multiple theoretical frameworks in the current L2 motivation research domain
Integrating findings from mixed methods research, the present study aims to gain a holistic and comprehensive understanding of what happens with English language learning motivation among the Chinese overseas students in a study abroad context
Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis indicates that motivational variables have correlations of various strength with the Chinese overseas students’ different motivated English language learning behaviors

Summary

Introduction

Motivation is commonly considered as a vital antecedent for accomplishing any complicated activity (Brown, 2000). The majority of the existing relevant studies tend to use the study abroad context as a categorical label opposed to at-home (Taguchi, 2018), by measuring either isolated individual or contextual variables in relation to L2 motivation at the expense of the other meaningful influential variables and comparing a group of learners in a study abroad context with their counterparts in a domestic setting (Farid and Lamb, 2020). These studies showed limited concern with what goes on with learners’ L2 motivation in a study abroad context, and have not been able to allow a comprehensive understanding of the complex L2 motivation among overseas L2 learners who retain particular historical and individual contexts but are located in a milieu with increasing international mobility

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion