國小學童EFL學習動機與一般性內在學習動機之關係－以新北市國小為例 - 政大學術集成

全文

(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士在職專班碩士論文. 指導教授：余明忠博士 Advisor: Dr. Ming-chung Yu. 政治大. 國小學童 EFL 學習動機與一般性內在學習動機之關係－以新北市國小為例. 立. ‧ 國. 學. ‧. The Relationship between Motivation for EFL Learning and Intrinsic Motivation for Overall Learning among Taiwanese Elementary School Students—A Case in New Taipei City. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究生：郭淑華撰 Name: Kuo, Shu-hua. 中華民國一百零伍年七月 July, 2016.

(2) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(3) The Relationship between Motivation for EFL Learning and Intrinsic Motivation for Overall Learning among Taiwanese Elementary School Students—A Case in New Taipei City. 立. A Master Thesis 治 to 政 Presented 大 Department of English,. ‧ 國. 學. National Chengchi University. ‧ er. io. sit. y. Nat In Partial Fulfillment. n. aofl the Requirements for the Degree v of i n C h Master of ArtsU engchi. by Kuo, Shu-hua July, 2016.


(5) Acknowledgments. With all my gratitude, I would like to dedicate my thanks to those who have ever helped me accomplish this work. First of all, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Ming-chung Yu, who always gave me heartwarming encouragements and insightful suggestions in time. His help and guidance were the keys to accomplishing this work. Second, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Chieh-yue Yeh and Dr.. 政治大 Moreover, I would like to thank my dear supportive friends and colleagues, 立. Yi-ping Huang for their invaluable suggestions on refining this work.. ‧ 國. 學. Ching-hung Wang, Mei-ying Huang, Dai-chun Yu, Ming-yao Hsiung, Yu-shan Peng, Ming-chuan Yang, Shu-feng Chen, Kai-fu Chang and many others too numerous to. ‧. mention.. Nat. sit. y. Finally, I would like to thank my dear husband, Chien-rung Chen, who helped. n. al. er. io. me with the statistical analyses and was always there for me whenever I needed someone to talk to.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. I feel much indebted to those who have instructed and favored me in the course of writing this paper.. i.

(6) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 5 2.1 Motivation Models............................................................................................................ 5 2.2 Motivation and Language Learning .......................................................................... 10 2.3 Motivation and Age ....................................................................................................... 16 2.4 Motivation and Taiwanese Pupils .............................................................................. 20. CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 23. 治政 3.1.1 Sample Size and Sampling Strategies.......................................................... 23 大立 3.1.2 Participants......................................................................................................... 24. 3.1 Participants ....................................................................................................................... 23. ‧ 國. 學. 3.2 Instrument ......................................................................................................................... 26 3.2.1 The Motivation and Attitudes toward Learning English Scale for. ‧. Children (MALESC) ........................................................................................ 27. 3.2.2 Scale of Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivation (SIEM) .......................... 29. y. Nat. 3.3 Procedures ........................................................................................................................ 30. sit. io. 3.3.1 Pre-implementation .......................................................................................... 30. er. 3.3.2 Expert Validity of the Two Questionnaires................................................. 30. al. n. v i n Ch 3.3.4 Reliability of the Two Questionnaires 32 i U e n g c h......................................................... 3.3.3 Pilot Study ........................................................................................................... 32 3.3.5 Implementation .................................................................................................. 33. 3.4 Data Analysis................................................................................................................... 34. CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS ............................................................................................................ 39 4.1 The Result of Quantitative Analysis of the MALESC ........................................ 40 4.2 The Main Factors for EFL Learning Among Taiwanese Pupils ....................... 41 4.2.1 The Result of the MALESC ............................................................................. 41 4.2.2 The Results of Open-ended Question 1 ....................................................... 44 4.2.3 The results of Questions 4, 5, and 6 ............................................................. 46. 4.3 The Result of Pearson Correlation between the MALESC and the SIEM .... 50 4.3.1 The Result of the SIEM .................................................................................... 50 ii.

(7) 4.3.2 The Relationship between EFL Learning Motivation. and Overall. Intrinsic Motivation .........................................................................................53. CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................55 5.1 Motivation Changes for EFL learning among Taiwanese elementary school. students ..............................................................................................................................55. 5.2 The underlying EFL Learning Factors for Taiwanese Pupils .............................58 5.3 The Relationship between the Motivation for EFL Learning and. the. Intrinsic Motivation for Overall Academic Learning ...........................................61 5.3.1 The Age-related Development of Overall Intrinsic Learning. Motivation ...........................................................................................................61. 政治大. 5.3.2 The Result of Pearson Correlation between the Two Motivations ......64. 立. CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................67. ‧ 國. 學. 6.1 Summary of the Major Findings .................................................................................67 6.2 Implications of the Study..............................................................................................69. ‧. 6.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies...................................................71. y. Nat. 6.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................73. io. sit. References..........................................................................................................................................74. er. Appendix A........................................................................................................................................84. al. n. v i n Ch Appendix C........................................................................................................................................88 engchi U Appendix D .......................................................................................................................................91 Appendix B........................................................................................................................................85. iii.

(8) LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Williams and Burden’s (1997) framework of Motivation in Language Learning ....................................................................................................... 15 Table 3.1 Sampling Strategies for Participants ............................................................ 24 Table 3.2 Participants’ Background Information ......................................................... 26 Table 3.3 Modification of the MALESC ..................................................................... 31 Table 3.4 Modification of the SIEM ............................................................................ 31 Table 3.5 Reliability Analysis for the MALESC ......................................................... 33 Table 3.6 Reliability Analysis for the SIEM ................................................................ 33 Table 3.7 Data Analysis ............................................................................................... 36. 政治大. Table 4.1 The Result of ANOVA for the Effect of Age on EFL Learning Motivation 41 Table 4.2The Analysis of the MALESC Data.............................................................. 43. 立. Table 4.3 The Qualitative Analysis of Participants’ Reasons for Learning English .... 45. ‧ 國. 學. Table 4.4 Things That Participants Enjoy Doing in Their English Classes ................. 47 Table 4.5 Things That Participants Dislike in Their English Classes .......................... 48 Table 4.6 Things That Students Would Do Differently If They Were the Teacher ...... 49. ‧. Table 4.7 The Place of English Among All the Subjects & Students Overall Learning. y. Nat. Interests ........................................................................................................ 50. io. sit. Table 4.8 Result of the Overall Intrinsic Learning Motivation and ANOVA of the. er. Effect of Age on This Motivation ................................................................ 52. al. n. v i n Ch Motivation.................................................................................................... 53 engchi U. Table 4.9 Pearson for EFL Learning Motivation & Overall Intrinsic Learning. iv.

(9) LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 Gardner’s Construct of the Integrative Motive ...................................................12. Fig. 2 The Whole Procedure .................................................................................................37. Fig. 3 The Development of Participants’ EFL Learning Motivation ........................40 Fig. 4 The Development of Overall Intrinsic Learning Motivation ..........................51. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. v. i n U. v.

(10) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士在職專班碩士論文摘要. 論文名稱：國小學童 EFL 學習動機與一般性學習動機之關係─以新北市國小為例指導教授：余明忠博士研究生：郭淑華論文提要內容：. 政治大主、持續、成功學習的關鍵。但研究發現，在 EFL 的學習上外在動機扮演著重要立動機一直被視為影響學習的重要因素之一，而內在動機更被學者喻為是自. ‧ 國. 學. 的角色，EFL 學習動機及內在學習動機更隨著年齡的增長而降低；對老師而言，了解學生學習動機的變化及造成變化的原因是很重要的。. ‧. 本研究旨在檢視國小學童 EFL 學習動機變化與年齡之間的關係，學童主要. y. Nat. io. sit. EFL 的學習動機，及 EFL 學習動機和一般性學習內在動機之間的關係。研究工具. er. 採用改編問卷，針對新北市一所公立國民小學，214 位 3 到 6 年級的學生進行抽. al. n. v i n 樣及問卷施測。資料分析同時採用質性及統計分析方法，包括頻率計算、分類、 Ch engchi U 單因子變異數分析及皮爾森相關係數等分析分法。本研究的主要結論如下：一、學童的 EFL 學習動機雖隨著年齡增加，但整體來說一直維持相當高的動機，年齡對動機的變化並沒有顯著的差異。二、國小學童的 EFL 學習動機主要為外在動機。三、一般性學習的內在動機雖隨著年齡有些微下降，但年齡對內在動機的變化影響並不顯著。. vi.

(11) 四、雖然學童的一般性內在學習動機隨著年齡增加而降低，但 EFL 的學習動機卻相反的是隨著年齡增加而增加，因此兩動機之間並無顯著相關。五、老師的適合學生及生動有趣的教學，能提升學生的學習動機。六、中年級的學生比較喜歡有趣的課堂活動及遊戲，而高年級的學生對流行的資訊，如流行歌曲、電影等較有興趣。七、高年級學生比低年級學生較有自信面對挑戰，老師應注意其評量方法並鼓勵學生面對挑戰。八、一些能提升學生參與度的創新教學法及教具或可有效提高學生的學習動機。. 立. 政治大. 根據上述研究結論，本研究針對國民小學英語教師，一般教師，教育行政主. ‧ 國. 學. 管機關及後續研究提出具體建議。. ‧. n. Ch. engchi. vii. er. io. al. sit. y. Nat. 關鍵字：外語學習動機、內在學習動機、年齡. i n U. v.

(12) Abstract. Motivation has been argued as one of the main affective factors for successful learning. Many studies have suggested that intrinsic motivation may be the key element for autonomous, persistent and successful learning (Ratelle et al., 2004). However, when it comes to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning, studies have showed that extrinsic motivation plays a crucial role (Nikolov, 1999). Some research also showed that EFL learning motivation and overall intrinsic motivation. 治政大 students’ decreased as students’ age increased (Carreia, 2011). Understanding 立 ‧ 國. 學. motivation development and the potential reasons behind the changes is important to teachers. The purpose of the present study was to investigate (1) age-related EFL. ‧. learning motivation development among elementary school students, (2) the potential. Nat. sit. y. factors that motivate their EFL learning, and (3) the relationship between overall. n. al. er. io. intrinsic learning motivation and EFL learning motivation. Adapted questionnaires. i n U. v. were distributed to 214 students in a public elementary school in New Taipei City in. Ch. engchi. Taiwan. Qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, including number distribution, recurring theme analysis, ANOVA and Pearson Correlation Coefficient, were applied to analyze the data. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Students’ EFL learning motivation increased moderately as their age grew. Age was not a significant predictor for the EFL learning motivation development. 2. Taiwanese pupils’ EFL learning motives were mainly extrinsically oriented. 3. The overall intrinsic learning motivation decreased moderately as students’ age increased. viii.

(13) 4. Though pupils’ overall intrinsic motivation went down in the course of time, their EFL learning motivation, on the contrary, went up. The two types of motivation were not significantly correlated. 5. Teachers may boost students’ learning motivation if they could incorporate children-friendly and interesting learning activities into their teaching. 6. Younger students preferred fun learning games and activities, whereas older students preferred trendy information, such as pop music. 7. Older students were more confident in challenging tasks than younger ones.. 治政大 students to rise to Teachers should be careful with evaluation and encourage 立 ‧ 國. 學. challenges.. 8. Innovative teaching approaches and aids that provide better student involvement. ‧. may boost students’ learning motivation.. Nat. sit. y. Based on the findings, suggestions are provided for elementary school English. n. al. er. io. teachers, homeroom teachers, and researchers of related topics.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Keywords: EFL Learning Motivation, Intrinsic Learning Motivation, Age. ix.


(15) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION. In order to facilitate language learning, researchers have put their efforts into analyzing some crucial factors in the learning process and many of them have been widely discussed from perspectives of cognition, linguistics, and affection. The affective factor is mainly related to learners’ attitudes, feelings and beliefs toward learning (Brown, 2007), and is regarded an extremely important factor in second. 治政大 a number of psychological language acquisition (SLA). The factor usually includes 立 ‧ 國. 學. variables, such as anxiety, self-confidence, willingness to communicate, and most importantly, motivation.. ‧. Referred to a tendency to “engage in an activity for its own sake” (Pintrich and. Nat. sit. y. Schunk, 2002, p. 245), motivation has been considered one of the key elements for. n. al. er. io. learners’ academic achievement (Ratelle et al., 2004). Motivation consists of two. i n U. v. types: extrinsic and intrinsic: the former is more likely to be triggered by some. Ch. engchi. practical reward; the latter, by an interest or enjoyment (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Both of the two types definitely have roles to play in children’s language learning (Brown, 2000). Some researchers even claimed that extrinsic motivation is actually the one that pushes EFL learning (Nikolov, 1999). Studies conducted by Hsiao (2007) and Liao (2000) in Taiwan suggested that students who are high achievers of English tend to have great extrinsic motivation in English as a foreign language (EFL) learning. Thus, when examining the EFL learning motivation, researchers are inclined to put the emphasis on extrinsic motivation. 1.

(16) When it comes to the intrinsic incentive, Gottfried (1990) claimed that the higher the intrinsic motivation is, the lower the anxiety children may have, and thus, the better the academic competence children may achieve. This intrinsic value is also commonly associated with autonomy, persistence, and positive attitudes (Clément, Dörnyei, & Noels, 1994) which are generally regarded as the qualities for successful learners. In addition, many studies suggested that the decline of learning motivation may mainly be due to the decline of intrinsic learning motivation (Lens, Paixão, & Herrera, 2009; Lepper, Corpus, & Iyengar, 2005). Therefore, when examining the. 治政 overall learning motivation, researchers tend to highlight 大 the importance of intrinsic 立 ‧ 國. 學. one.. To everyone’s dismay, Hater (1981) discovered a developmental decrease in. ‧. motivation, particularly the intrinsic one, for overall academic learning among USA. Nat. sit. y. students. Some researchers (Carreia, 2006a; MacIntyre et al., 2002; Sung and Padilla,. n. al. er. io. 1998) also found a decline of motivation for language learning as children’s age grew.. i n U. v. What’s more, Carreira’s studies (2006b, 2011) suggested that there was a systematic. Ch. engchi. backsliding of both overall intrinsic learning motivation and EFL learning motivation among 3rd to 6th graders in Japan and the two learning motives were correlated. However, little research has been done to examine the relationship between the two different learning motivations among Taiwanese students, and even rare research has been dedicated to elementary school students, which may be due to young children’s limited ability to express themselves thoroughly and truthfully. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to explore the age-related EFL learning motive changes, to examine the relationship between overall intrinsic 2.

(17) learning motivation and EFL learning motivation among Taiwanese elementary students and to investigate the potential factors behind. The results of this study may provide elementary school teachers with information about the development of students’ EFL and overall intrinsic learning motivation. With this, teachers may know when and how to modify their teaching methods in order to create a learner friendly environment and boost students’ learning stimuli, for the early-stage motivation could have a profound implication for future studies and success (Gottfried, 1990).. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 3. i n U. v.

(18) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 4. i n U. v.

(19) CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW. In this section, the researcher explored the literature relevant to the main concern of the present study. The literature was reviewed in four parts: motivation models, motivation and language learning, motivation and age, and finally, motivation in Taiwan’s EFL learning context.. 立. 治政大 2.1 Motivation Models. ‧ 國. 學. The study of motivation can be traced back to decades ago. Along with anxiety, self-confidence, self-esteem, and other psychological variables, motivation has been. ‧. one of the main affective factors. Keller (1983) argued that ability and motivation are. Nat. sit. y. the imperative factors in academic success because the two elements suggest not only. n. al. er. io. what one can do but also what one will do. The whole construct of motivation has. i n U. v. been categorized into two dimensions: the intrinsic and extrinsic orientation (Deci & Ryan, 1985).. Ch. engchi. According to Deci and Ryan (2000), the two types of motives can be distinguished by different goals for the action: doing something out of interests or enjoyment, namely doing something intrinsically; doing something for external rewards, namely extrinsically. Lens et al. (2009) argued that the distinction between the two is that the intrinsic motivation is based on autonomous regulation, whereas the extrinsic one is based on controlled motivation. Learning behaviors are products of either intrinsic motivation or extrinsic one. Ask students why they learn their 5.

(20) lessons, do their homework, or even study for exams. Some may offer intrinsically motivated reasons, such as ‘I like science’, ‘I am interested in math’, ‘I really want to know more about the history of our country’, or ‘I want to master a foreign language’. On the contrary, some may give answers that have more to do with the extrinsic reasons, such as ‘I will be punished if I don’t study’, ‘I am forced to learn by my teacher or parents’, ‘I can have some great reward if I study hard’, ‘I want to go to a famous college’, or ‘I want to get a well-paid job in the future’. What’s more, some may give answers related to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, such as ‘I want to. 治政 go to some top medical school and do the research that大 I am really interested in’. 立 ‧ 國. 學. Students can offer a wide variety of reasons (Stipek, 2002).. Although both of the two drives have a role to play when it comes to learning,. ‧. the intrinsic one has been commonly argued to be of better quality and crucial to. Nat. sit. y. persistent learning and high achievement, for many studies have suggested that. n. al. er. io. extrinsic rewards or controls may so potentially undermine intrinsic motivation that. i n U. v. when the rewards or controls are removed, individuals tend to lose their innate. Ch. engchi. interests or even stop learning (Cameron, 2001; Luyten & Lens, 1981). Take the experimental research, “magic marker”, for example. The research was conducted by Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett (1973) to test if over reinforcement could jeopardize innate learning interest. There were 51 three to five-year-old children who showed their intrinsic interests in the target activity, drawing. The children were randomly exposed to one of the three conditions: one with expected reward (children were engaged in the target activity expecting reward and they received reward soon after they completed the target activity), one with unexpected reward (children were 6.

(21) engaged in the target activity voluntarily without knowing the reward until they finished the target activity and received one), and one with no reward (children neither expected nor received any reward after finishing the target activity). At first, the children in the expected-condition showed as much interest in the target activity as or greater than those in the other two conditions. They were rewarded every time after they completed the target activity. This was repeated several times till the children were used to receiving reward after the work was done. Then all of the sudden, the reward was cancelled. After that, children in the expected-condition seemed to show. 治政 less interest than those in the other two. The result大 supported the hypothesis that too 立 ‧ 國. 學. much extrinsic reinforcement may potentially jeopardize the innate interest. Therefore, the intrinsically motivated behaviors are commonly noted to be. ‧. empirical in educational outcomes for children as quoted from Deci and Ryan (1985):. y. Nat. Children are intrinsically motivated to learn, to undertake challenges,. io. sit. and to solve problems . . . and [do] countless others things for which. n. al. er. there are not obvious or appreciable external rewards. (p.11). i n U. v. Deci and Ryan (2000) also claimed that human intrinsic motivations are developed. Ch. engchi. from three primary psychological needs: the need for competence or satisfaction, the need for autonomy or the will to choose for one’s own action, and the need for relatedness or social connections. In other words, learners have to feel satisfied with the learning experiences, the learning behavior has to be a product of self-determination, and the learning has to be connected with real life or social approvals. Human beings are born to have intrinsic motive for learning (White, 1959). Take infants for example. They spontaneously explore things around them soon after they are born to satisfy the need of curiosity without any external rewards (Berlyne, 7.

(22) 1966). The initiative learning behaviors are carried out by the innate needs, namely intrinsic drives. The concept also echoed with Maslow’s hierarchy of need (1970), advocating that intrinsic motivation is obviously superior to its counterpart. Thereupon, only through this autonomous, self-rewarded spontaneous innate factor may incessant, persistent, life-long learning be realized (Bruner, 1966). Gottfried (1985) further elaborated academic intrinsic motivation with several characteristics, such as mastery, curiosity, persistence, and activeness in learning challenging difficult new things. Some researchers actually argued that the quality of. 治政大determinant of enjoyable being able to rise to challenges of a new activity is the key 立 ‧ 國. 學. status in mind (Csikszentmihalyi & Nakamura, 1989). That is, when a learner is intrinsically motivated, he or she will constantly, actively and joyfully pursue. ‧. something novel and challenging in the learning process. Researchers, therefore, have. Nat. sit. y. assumed that learners with high intrinsic motivation tend to show significantly high. n. al. er. io. academic achievements because of the qualities mentioned above (Barto, 2013;. i n U. v. Brown, 1990; Clément et al., 1994; Z. Dörnyei & Cumming, 2003; Gottfried, 1985; Noels, Clément, & Pelletier, 1999).. Ch. engchi. Although it is suggested that the extrinsic rewards can undermine intrinsic learning value and lessen the primary drive and satisfaction (Berlyne, 1966; Lepper, 1981; White, 1959) and intrinsic motivation is doubtlessly a crucial factor, honestly speaking, a lot of learning behaviors are activated extrinsically for social demands and responsibilities, such as school and job requirements (Ryan & Deci, 2000). But that the extrinsic drive was not autonomous didn’t mean it was less worthy. For instance, children may study hard in order to earn praises from their parents. After working 8.

(23) hard, they may be repaid with good grades. And this high achievement resulting from the hard working may help the learner grow a strong sense of self-confidence and thus spark the enjoyment or interest in learning. The whole process may start extrinsically yet end intrinsically; namely, the extrinsic motive fosters the “internalization and integration of values and behavioral regulation” (Deci & Ryan, 2000: p. 60). Ryan, Connell, and Deci (1985) proposed that some extrinsic motivations are partially self-determined. Although intrinsically motivated behaviors are defined to be self-determined, some extrinsically motivated behaviors can be self-determined, too.. 治政大 in order to gain some reward, For example, when individuals prepare for an exam 立 ‧ 國. 學. they actually take the initiative in making the decision for the action. Thus, the extrinsic motivation becomes somewhat intrinsic. Just as what Toshihiko (1997). ‧. explained:. y. Nat. The tendency toward assimilation or integration can lead people not only. io. sit. to do what interests them, but also to internalize and integrate the value. n. al. er. of these activities and allow them to feel both autonomous and related to others within the social world. (p. 99). Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Ryan and Connell (1989) proposed that there were four types of motives along the continuum of motivation: external, introjected, identified, and intrinsic. The external motivation, by definition, is activated by extrinsic reasons, such as orders from authorities or reward. For example, children may be engaged in some activities because they are asked to do so by their parents or teachers. The introjected motivation is generated by an internalized motivation because of external reasons, such as avoidance of punishment or concerns about praises or approvals from others. Under such circumstances, the individual is actually the one who has the power and 9.

(24) control over the decision whether to surrender to the constraints or not. For instance, students may choose to prepare for an exam because they want to win the praises from their parents. Though there is an extrinsic reason behind the action, the motivation can be seen as somewhat intrinsic because a certain degree of self-determination is involved. The identified reason is defined as “I want”, a rather intrinsic motivation on one hand, yet an extrinsic motivation on the other hand, for the behaviors caused by identified reasons are regarded as a means to an end. “I want to learn a foreign. 治政 language because that will help me get a good job” can be大 an example of that. Lastly, 立 ‧ 國. 學. the intrinsic motivation, by definition, refers to doing an activity for enjoyment in a self-determined way. Through this continuum, one can see a process of assimilation. ‧. that external motivation becomes somewhat internal. What’s more, the external value. Nat. sit. y. is important because it serves as the catalyst for intrinsic value formation. The innate. n. al. er. io. value, therefore, still outshines the external one when it comes to learning. That is. i n U. v. why many studies have suggested that the decline of learning motivation may mainly. Ch. engchi. be caused by the decline of intrinsic learning motivation (Lens et al., 2009; Lepper et al., 2005).. 2.2 Motivation and Language Learning In foreign language learning, motivation is definitely a star player in the cast. Reece and Walker (1997) stressed that when highly motivated, even a slow John would be able to achieve a greater success than a fast learner. Oxford and Shearin (1994) claimed that 10.

(25) . . . motivation directly influences how often students use L2 learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how much input they receive in the language . . . and how well they do on curriculum-related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how long they persevere and maintain L2 skills after language study is over. (p. 12). Krashen (1981) collapsed numerous kinds of stimuli into a more general category: affective filter. Likewise, Schumann (1986) combined various social and psychological motivations, forming a construct of acculturation model. Yet, among the motivation research in language learning, integrative and instrumental motivation. 治政大 argument across the studies of based on Gardner (1985b) is perhaps the best-known 立 ‧ 國. 學. the kind. From Gardner’s point of view, the two types of motives are different in that the integrative factor is generated by learners’ interests in target language culture or. ‧. group or the language itself; yet, the instrumental one is developed by some practical. Nat. sit. y. external advantages, such as passing exams or getting a desirable job. The two. n. al. er. io. psychological factors may be viewed as subtypes of intrinsic and extrinsic. i n U. v. motivations (Schmidt, Boraie, & Kassabgy, 1996). Gardner started with his language. Ch. engchi. learning motivation theory in accordance with conventionally and generally accepted conceptions of motivation: “those factors that energized behavior and give it directions” (19: p.281). Then he added two more important components to explicate his idea about language learning motivation: the desire for learning the language and the attitudes toward learning a foreign language. In other words, Gardner suggested that individuals strive to learn a foreign language because of the desire to fulfill a goal and obtain the satisfaction from the learning. According to Gardner, there are three main components in his language 11.

(26) learning theory: motivation (i.e. desire for learning, the attitude toward learning, and the efforts the learner gives), the integrativeness (i.e. development or openness to L2 cultural identification), and attitudes toward learning (i.e. attitudes toward learning environment and teachers), which all contribute to parts of the integrative motivation, making it the key element in the theory. Gardner proposed that integrative motive contains a genuine interest in a foreign language, an interest in the culture of the foreign language, a willingness to communicate with the members of that community, and a favorable attitude toward learning the. 治政 language. The motive contains not only behavioral but also大 cognitive and affective 立 ‧ 國. 學. elements. The intensity or density of effort generated from this motivation is a crucial component to glue all the elements together so as to reach an ultimate. ‧. achievement (Gardner, 2007). Based on Gardener’s conception, a construct of. Nat. n. al. Ch. engchi. 12. er. io. Fig. 1 Gardner’s Construct of the Integrative Motive. sit. y. motivation model was developed by Dörnyei (1994b) as shown in Fig. 1.. i n U. v.

(27) Influenced by the previous studies which had put a lot of emphases on the importance of intrinsic factor, researchers might assume that individuals with higher integrative orientation would achieve better second language competence (Gardner & Lambert, 1972). Nevertheless, Brown (1990, 2007) indicated that both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation may be equally valued in learning a second language (L2) and Brown was not alone in advocating this perspective (Csizer & Dörnyei, 2005; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Warden & Lin, 2000). One could imagine that it should be rather difficult to teach a L2 in a non-authentic learning environment if the learners have no desire to. 治政大 Researchers, thus, suggested learn, or if there is no strong instrumental inducement. 立 ‧ 國. 學. an intrinsic-extrinsic continuum in motivation for foreign language classrooms, which may happen around the world regardless of differences between cultural beliefs and. ‧. the attitudes of learners and teachers (Brown, 2007). The two types of motives are no. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. simultaneously.. y. longer two polar opposites, but a continuum with interaction that facilitate L2 learning. i n U. v. The idea of intrinsic-extrinsic continuum can be found in some studies in L2. Ch. engchi. classes. Nikolov (1999) summarized that enthusiastic L2 Hungarian young learners were more instrumentally motivated with a great concern of vocation. Dörnyei (1994a) suggested that the need for both personal challenge and achievement make strong motivators for EFL learning. Furthermore, a number of external factors are proved to be important elements to affect L2 learning feelings, performances, and outcomes; these factors may include teaching methods, course designs, parental care, peer influence, classroom activities, and even given tasks (Chambers, 1998; Schmidt, Inbar, & Shohamy, 2004; Dörnyei, 2009; Egbert, 2004; Ellis, 1985). Dörnyei arugued that 13.

(28) instrumental goals play a crucial role to motivate L2 learners, but he also suggested that integrative motivation is critical to help L2 learners go beyond intermediate level. Hence, when exploring the stimuli related to L2 learning, researchers suggested that neither of the two drives can be underestimated. According to Dörnyei (1998), L2 learning motivation is a “particularly complex and unique situation” (p. 118) because learning a foreign language can involve a development of L2 identity, incorporation of L2 culture elements as well as features of learners’ personality and social conditions. Take a survey conducted by Oxford in. 治政大 who participated in 1991 for example. There were 218 American high school students 立 ‧ 國. 學. the survey and were asked about the motivation of studying Japanese. Some were extrinsically motivated (e.g. I want to get a job or study in Japan) and some were. ‧. intrinsically motivated (e.g. I am interested in Japanese culture). However, more than. Nat. sit. y. two-thirds of the students offered reasons that were hardly related to either of the. n. al. er. io. motivations. These reasons were like enjoying the elitism of learning a difficult. i n U. v. language, seeking personal challenge, showing off to friends, aiding world peace,. Ch. engchi. having a secret code with friends, exploring a secret culture, and all kinds of unexpected answers. Therefore, after reviewing the related studies, Williams and Burden (1997) summarized the motivating factors mentioned and developed a comprehensive framework of language learning motivation (Table. 2.1), providing a highly detailed treatment in this particular L2 issue (Williams & Burden, 1997: p. 120).. 14.

(29) io. sit. y. 立. n. al. er. ‧ 國. ‧. External factors Significant others ‧parents ‧teachers ‧peers The nature of interaction with significant others ‧mediated learning experiences ‧the nature and amount of feedback ‧ rewards ‧ the nature and amount of appropriate praise ‧ punishments, sanctions The learning environment ‧comfort ‧resources ‧time of day, week, year ‧size of class and school ‧class and school ethos The broader context ‧wider family networks ‧the local education system ‧conflicting interests ‧cultural norms ‧societal expectations and attitudes. 學. Nat. Internal Factors Intrinsic interest of activity ‧arousal of curiosity ‧optimal degree of challenge Perceived value of activity ‧personal relevance ‧anticipated value of outcomes ‧ intrinsic value attributed to the activity Sense of agency ‧ locus of causality ‧ locus of control RE process and outcomes ‧ability to set appropriate goals Mastery ‧ feelings of competence ‧awareness of developing skills and mastery in a chosen area ‧self-efficacy Self-concept ‧realistic awareness of personal ‧strengths and weaknesses in skills required ‧personal definitions and judgements of success and failure ‧self-worth concern learned helplessness Attitudes language learning in general ‧to the target language ‧to the target language community and culture Other affective states ‧ confidence ‧ anxiety, fear Developmental age and stage Gender. Table 2.1 Williams and Burden's (1997) Framework of Motivation in Language Learning. Table 2. 1 Williams and Burden’s (1997) framework of Motivation in Language Learning. 政治大. Ch. engchi. 15. i n U. v.

(30) 2.3 Motivation and Age An infant starts probing the world spontaneously and enjoys its findings soon after it is born. This pleasant autonomous motivation is so precious and important in learning that we would like it to last forever. Unfortunately, some studies showed that motivation, especially the intrinsic one, decreased stably as age increased. Bruner (1966) argued that schools seem to kill rather than nurse students’ interests and desire for knowledge. Others argued that the gradual erosion of positive academic value and behaviors may lead to this backslide of intrinsic motive in the course of time. 治政大 1992). The causes (Anderman & Maehr, 1994; Nicholls, 1979; Sansone & Morgan, 立 ‧ 國. 學. for this decline have troubled the educators and researchers so much that they have been widely discussed.. ‧. To investigate pupils’ developmental changes on overall learning motivation,. Nat. sit. y. Harter (1981) conducted a huge survey on 3,000 third through ninth grade pupils in. n. al. er. io. California, Colorado, New York, and Connecticut. In Harter’s questionnaire, she. i n U. v. provided two choices for each question, one standing for intrinsic motivation (e.g.. Ch. engchi. Some kids know when they’ve made mistakes without checking with the teacher) and the other standing for extrinsic motivation (e.g. other kids need to check with the teacher to know if they’ve made a mistake). The limited options forced the participants to decide which kind of kid was more like them. Then, they were asked whether the option was only partly true or totally true to them by another Likert-type scale questionnaire. The results indicated that children’s intrinsic motivation for academic learning continuously and systematically decreased from third to ninth grade. According to Harter, the result may be caused by students’ shift of interests 16.

(31) because as children grow older, they may find where their true concern lies, and thus channel their internal motive away from what they are encouraged to do toward what they are truly interested in, such as sports, friendship, or social activities. Following Harter (1981), Sakurai & Takano (1985) and Carreira (2006) modified the questionnaire by simplifying the items into either-or questions to examine intrinsic motivation among Japanese pupils. The questionnaire items were categorized into six subscales: curiosity, causality, enjoyment, mastery, challenge, and attribution. The results of the two studies showed a decline of intrinsic motivation with increasing. 治政 grade levels. The missing of learning goals may be 大 the main reason for this decline. 立 ‧ 國. 學. Folmer et al. (2008) also found an age-related motivation change resulted from learners’ effort/ability attributions: only not smart kids have to work hard, but even. ‧. they do so, their effort may never get repaid. Hence, they don’t have to work hard. Nat. sit. y. because it all depends on gene. This cognitive awareness develops as their age grows. n. al. er. io. and consequently lower their learning motivation for school works. Lens et al. (2009). i n U. v. argued that this deterioration of intrinsic drive is especially true among low or. Ch. engchi. underachieving students who have suffered from the consequences of low grades. The painful results could be being punished, looked down upon, and assigned with extra practices. It shouldn’t be hard to imagine that they lose their interest in school works after years of accumulation of bad experiences. In addition, there are some other possible explanations of this displeasing age-related motivation decline: repeated use of extrinsic constraints that crashes autonomous learning drive (Kohn, 1993); tightened school controls that eliminate spontaneous exploration (Midgley & Feldlaufer, 1987); more and more complicated 17.

(32) and decontextualized content with less and less practicality in daily life that hold learners from moving forward (Brown & Campione, Bruner, 1996). A study of Gottfried et al. (2001) also measured a decreasing trend of intrinsic factors in general subjects among students from 9 to 17 years old. This lower level of learning motivation has hindered students from reaching their potential and that is not only an educational issue, but a serious societal problem (Lepper et al., 2005). While a great number of studies have been carried out to examine this age-related changes on intrinsic motivation in general learning, only a few studies. 治政 have been done to analyze motivation in L2 learning in大 spite of the fact that the 立 ‧ 國. 學. learners’ interests needs to be sustained over many years before they can master the language. Lepper et al.’s study (2005) indicated that though inner incentive weakens. ‧. with age, the extrinsic value, surprisingly, remains little changed across different age. Nat. sit. y. levels. The findings of Corpus et al. (2006) also reached a similar result. So, when it. n. al. er. io. comes to EFL learning context, in which external rewards or goals have been proved. i n U. v. to be very important for young children (Nikolov, 1999), can students’ EFL learning. Ch. engchi. motivation be maintained as their age grows?. MacIntyre et al. (2002) reported an increase of willingness to communicate among junior high school French immersion students, which may result from the decrease of anxiety as students get used to school context and the increase of self-consciousness as students grow older. Nikolov (1999) conducted a long-term study on Hungarian children’ EFL learning motivation. The study involved 84 participants with ages between 6 and 14. Among them, 45 were studied for the full length of eight years. The participants had to write down their answers to 6 18.

(33) open-ended questions. The questionnaire was administrated in the spring term of each academic year from 1977 to 1985. The results demonstrated that the learners generally upheld a positive and enthusiastic attitude toward English learning throughout all age levels, though most of them were inspired by instrumental reasons. Muñoz and Tragant (2001) also suggested that the foreign language learning motivation among younger students was no better than that of the older students although there was a shift of motivation emphasis from intrinsic to extrinsic value. Unfortunately, this is not the case for all studies. Ghenghesh (2010) recruited 144. 治政大 EFL learning motivation. grade 6 to 10 students in Egypt to examine the cross-age 立 ‧ 國. 學. There were 101 Likert-type scale items and five open-ended questions contained in the questionnaire. The quantitative and qualitative results revealed a similar decent of. ‧. L2 learning among junior high school students, yet according to the author, this may. Nat. sit. y. be reshaped with teachers’ attitudes or more exposure to native-like environment.. n. al. er. io. Sung and Padilla (1998) investigated foreign language learning motivation among. i n U. v. elementary and secondary school students in the USA by means of questionnaires.. Ch. engchi. They studied the students from 4th to 12th grades, including 140 elementary school students and 451 high school ones. The results suggested that younger students were more motivated than older students. Carreira (2011) also reported a similar lessening of motivation not only for L2 learning, but also for overall intrinsic learning among Japanese pupils. The decline of EFL learning motivation may result from the course designs, teaching styles, and decontextualized contents and non-authentic language learning environment. Yet, the situation among Taiwanese elementary school students remains to be explored. Is there also a decline of overall intrinsic motivation and EFL 19.

(34) learning motivation among the pupils as they grow older?. 2.4 Motivation and Taiwanese Pupils Some research has been done to investigate English learning motivation among Taiwanese students. Liao (2000) examined EFL learning motive among Taiwanese junior high school students. She interviewed 20 students and 4 English teachers and did classroom observation in four different English classes. The results showed that the students were unmotivated in general and their EFL learning motivation were. 治政大a tendency that a great extrinsically oriented. Likewise, Hsiao (2007) identified 立 ‧ 國. 學. number of junior highs learned English because of some typical instrumental motives, such as family influence, school admission requirement, and profitable jobs.. ‧. Li (2006) investigated the EFL learning motivation among 1317 six graders and. Nat. sit. y. suggested that instrumental reasons were significant predictors for their learning. n. al. er. io. achievement. Chiung (2010), Pan (2002) and Su (2007) all reached a similar result. i n U. v. that extrinsic factors correlated with the outcome of L2 learning among elementary. Ch. engchi. pupils. These factors may include teachers’ instruction, learning strategies, and learning environment. Yu (2003) also reported that students from families of high socioeconomic status are inclined to have greater EFL learning motivation than those from middle- or lower-level families because children from rich families tend to have more exposure to English. When it comes to overall intrinsic learning motivation, Chen (2008) obtained a disappointing result that pupils from fourth to sixth grades suffered a decline in both inner and external motivation in overall academic learning. However, the age-related development of EFL learning motivation among 20.

(35) Taiwanese elementary students has yet to be investigated into. The relationship between the intrinsic motivation for general academic learning and EFL learning among Taiwanese pupils remains unclear. Although dozens of studies have been done in Taiwan to investigate the ways to promote pupil’s learning motions, the studies aimed to examine age-related motivation changes among pupils are rare to the best of the researcher’s knowledge. Therefore, after reviewing the related literature, the researcher formed the following research questions:. 治政大 Taiwanese elementary school 1. Is there a motivation decline for EFL learning among 立 ‧ 國. 學. students as they grow older?. 2. What are the underlying factors that may affect EFL learning for Taiwanese. ‧. pupils?. Nat. sit. y. 3. What’s the relationship between the motivation for EFL learning and the intrinsic. n. al. er. io. factor for overall academic learning?. Ch. engchi. 21. i n U. v.


(37) CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY. This research aimed to investigate young learners’ EFL learning motivation, the potential motivating factors, and the relationship between EFL learning motivation and overall intrinsic learning motivation among elementary school students in Taiwan. To serve the purposes, the methods of the study were presented as follows.. 立. 治政3.1 Participants 大. ‧ 國. 學. Participants involved in this study were elementary school students from 3rd grade to 6th grade so that a motivation change in different age levels among young. ‧. pupils could be closely examined. The selected public elementary school for this. Nat. er. io. sit. y. study was located in the suburb of New Taipei City, Taiwan.. al. n. v i n C h Size and Sampling 3.1.1 Sample e n g c h i U Strategies. In order to see if students’ EFL learning motivation went down as their age grew, participants from 3rd to 6th grades were randomly selected. In correlational research, it is conventional to use a minimum of 30 participants (Gall, Borg, & Gall, 1996). The number of students in each class in the selected school was about 25 to 28. The researcher, therefore, randomly selected two classes from 3rd to 6th grades each, making the total number of the participants in the present study 214 students. The participants were 8-9 years old for 3rd graders; 9-10 for 4th graders; 10-11 for 5th 23.

(38) graders, and 11-12 for 6th graders. Among these participants, 54 were from 3rd grade, 52 from 4th grade, 54 from 5th grade, and 54 from 6th grade, with 105 girls and 109 boys in total respectively (See Table 3.1). The numbers of each gender were nearly equal and thus, the interference of gender differentiations could be avoided, for studies had indicated that the female students tend to have better EFL learning motivation than the male ones (Gottfried, 1985; Sakurai & Takano, 1985). Table 3.1 Sampling Strategies for Participants Grade. Age. Number of Students. Gender. Percentage. 政治大 male. 28. n. al. 12.1%. 26. male. 12.1%. 26. female. 12.1%. 28. male. 13.0%. 26. female. 27. male. 27. female. 214. Ch. y. sit. io. Total. female. er. 11-12. Nat. 6. 10-11. 26. ‧. 5. 9-10. 13.0%. 學. 4. 立. 8-9. ‧ 國. 3. engchi. 109 male. 105 female. i n U. v. 12.1% 12.8% 12.8% 100% 50.9% 49.1%. 3.1.2 Participants. According to the given information, students in this public school are of normal class grouping and nearly one-fifth of the students are from low-income families, which implies that English classes in school may be the only EFL learning source for 24.

(39) these students. More than half of the students in this school go to private scram schools or language centers for extra English classes. Students are regrouped every other year, which means students have a fresh start with a new homeroom teacher, classmates, and a new English teacher in 3rd and 5th grade. Students from 1st to 2nd grades are given a forty-minute English lesson twice a week (80 minutes per week), and those from 3rd to 6th grades, three times a week (120 minutes per week). They learn their English mainly from Taiwanese English teachers. The students from 3rd to 6th grades are also required to take school-level English tests. 治政大5 at the middle and the end of each term. Furthermore, 立. th. graders are obligated to take. ‧. ‧ 國. English.. 學. City-government-mandated standardized achievement tests for Chinese, math, and. None of the participants had had the experience of living in countries with. sit. y. Nat. English as the native language. Only 2 (0.8%) participants, one boy from 3rd grade. n. al. er. io. and one girl from 5th grade, had the experience of joining a short-term English course. i n U. v. in the USA before. Among the participants, 113 (52.8%) had a one-hour. Ch. engchi. outside-school advanced English class twice a week on a regular basis. There were 18 (8.4%) participants who had extra English lessons before but not anymore, and 45 (21%) students from normal families along with 38 (17.8%) ones from low-income families had never attended any extra English lessons before (See Table 3.2). Participants who had or had not received extra English instructions were nearly equally distributed, which may lower the influence of time spent on learning because studies have confirmed that extra learning time and instruction could be one of the main factors for high learning achievement (Gijselaers & Schmidt, 1995). 25.

(40) Achievement levels could also affect learning motivation for the better the achievement students have the greater the motivations are ( Ryan & Deci, 2000). Table 3.2 Participants’ Background Information Number of Background. Category. Percentage Students 101. 47.20%. 113. 52.80%. 176. 82.20%. 38. 17.80%. 學. 120 mins (from school only). 0.80%. Instructed English More than 120 mins (school &. Lessons (per week). cram school). 治政 Low-income families speaking 大立 countries Normal families. ‧ 國. Social-economic Status. Ever studied in. 2. English-speaking countries. ‧. Never studied abroad. 99.20%. Nat. io. sit. y. 212. al. 3.2 Instrument. er. Personal experiences. n. v i n C and Two questionnaires with openquestions were employed in h eclosed-ended ngchi U this research: The Motivation and Attitudes toward Learning English Scale for Children (MALESC) and Scale of Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivation (SIEM). The MALESC was aimed to examine EFL learning motivation, and the SIEM, overall intrinsic learning motivation. Both questionnaires were administered in Chinese. The questionnaire items were originally formulated in English and had been applied in numerous previous studies, such as Carreira (2011), Gottfried (1990), Harter (1981) and Sakurai and Takano (1985). These questions were translated into Chinese word by. 26.

(41) word first by experienced Taiwanese English teachers. Then it was modified to be more like daily talk to make sure that all question items were phrased appropriately and comprehensible to young children.. 3.2.1 The Motivation and Attitudes toward Learning English Scale for Children (MALESC). The starting part of this questionnaire was the personal information section,. 治政 asking participants questions about their grade, age, 大gender, scores in their mid-term 立. and final English tests, overseas living and learning experiences in English-speaking. ‧ 國. 學. countries, and extra English lessons received per week at scram schools.. ‧. The main part of this questionnaire aimed to measure children’s motivation and. sit. y. Nat. attitudes for EFL learning. The items were adapted from the questionnaires in some. n. al. er. io. previous studies (Carreira, 2011; Gardner, 1985b; Sakurai & Takano, 1985; Schmidt. i n U. v. et al., 1996). Tested by Carreira (2011), the Cronbach alpha index of reliability of this. Ch. engchi. questionnaire was between .71 and .87. The MALESC contained 13 items (see Appendix A and B for English and Chinese versions) to assess three affective variables related to EFL learning: intrinsic motivation for language learning (e.g., English lessons are great fun), interest in foreign countries (e.g., I would like to go to various foreign countries), and extrinsic motivation for EFL learning (e.g., I study English because I think English will be important for me when I am an adult). The questionnaire were measured by Likert-type scales with the middle one (neutral one) omitted because studies had shown that a lot of Taiwanese young 27.

(42) learners tended to choose the neutral one without thinking it over carefully, which may be due to their short attention span (Li et al., 2006). Carriera (2006) also agreed with omitting the category ‘neither agree nor disagree’, ‘not sure’, or ‘neutral’ because some participants might tick the category too often. Consequently, there were four scales in the questionnaire: strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree. Each option was given a score for analysis purposes, rating from 4 points to 1 point respectively. Questions 1, 3, 5, and 7 were designed to assess the intrinsic motivation; questions 2, 4, 9, 11, and 12 were for interest in foreign countries and finally,. 治政大 questions 6, 8, 10 and 13 were for investigating extrinsic motivation. 立 ‧ 國. 學. Furthermore, six open-ended questions were given in this same questionnaire. Unlike the questionnaires that provided students with limited choices, these. ‧. open-ended questions allowed the participants to express the true opinions that they. Nat. sit. y. bear in mind. The answers to these open-ended questions were equally important to. n. al. er. io. the analyses of the research questions. The six questions were adapted from Nikolov. i n U. v. (1999). Questions 1, 4, 5, and 6 aimed to obtain detailed information about what. Ch. engchi. motivates the pupils in EFL learning; Questions 2 and 3 aimed to seek for the relationship between English and other academic subjects, which may provide detailed information for the third research question of the present study. The total six questions were: 1. Why do you learn English? 2. What are your top three favorite school subjects? 3. What are the school subjects you dislike (if any)? 4. What do you enjoy doing the most in English classes? 28.

(43) 5. What do you dislike (if any) in English classes? 6. If you were the teacher what would you do differently?. 3.2.2 Scale of Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivation (SIEM). The first part of this questionnaire was also the personal information section, asking participants questions about their grade, age, gender, scores in their mid-term and final tests for four main subjects (Chinese, math, science, and social studies), and. 治政 experiences of going to nurseries or cram school for大 extra instructions. 立. The main part of this questionnaire (see Appendix C and D for English and. ‧ 國. 學. Chinese versions) was adapted from Harter (1981) and Carreira (2011). With a total of. ‧. 30 items, this questionnaire was meant to assess intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for. sit. y. Nat. overall learning. The Cronbach alpha index of internal consistency of this. n. al. er. io. questionnaire ranged between .62 and .86 in the study conducted by Carreira (2011).. i n U. v. There were 6 subscales and each contained 5 items: curiosity (items 1, 7, 13, 19, and. Ch. engchi. 25), causality (items 2, 8, 14, 20, and 26), mastery ( items 3, 9, 15, 21, and 27), attribution (items 4, 10, 16, 22, and 28), challenge (items 5, 11, 17, 23, and 29), and enjoyment (items 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30). Each item was given two statements that stood for either intrinsic factor (e.g., I want to study various things voluntarily) or extrinsic value (e.g., I think I should study only what my teachers ask me to study). Students were confined to choose one out of the two options. Each option was scored as 0 and 1. Scale 1 stood for intrinsic motivation and scale 0 stood for extrinsic one.. 29.

(44) 3.3 Procedures In order to make sure that the goals of this study could be reached, the procedures were carried out as follows.. 3.3.1 Pre-implementation. For the two questionnaires were originally formulated in English, the questionnaires were translated by 3 professional and experienced Taiwanese English. 治政 teachers and then discussed and modified to make sure the 大translated questionnaire 立 items were comprehensible to children.. Nat. sit. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 3.3.2 Expert Validity of the Two Questionnaires. n. al. er. io. After the questionnaire items were properly translated, the items were then. i n U. v. examined by English Department professors, experienced elementary school English. Ch. engchi. teachers, and senior elementary school Chinese teachers, making sure that the translated versions were not only correct, but also children-friendly. In this stage, some problems, such as unclear description, difficult wording, and similar questions, were examined, discussed, adjusted and revised so as to ensure that the expert validity of the two questionnaires could be established (See Table 3.3 & 3.4).. 30.

(45) Table 3.3 Modification of the MALESC Item. Original Version. Revised Version I am studying English in order to enter a "good" high school or a university (Almost all youngsters in Taiwan get to. I am studying English in order to #13. enter a high school or a university if they enter a high school or a university. want to. But if they want to go to a good one, they have to have good performances in English.). 立. 政治大 Revised Version. A: I like difficult problems.. A: I like difficult questions.. B: I like easier problems.. B: I like easy questions.. B: I study in order to get good. I study because I want to get good grades.. io. A: Getting praises from my parents. n. al. A: I do not study only because I want. Ch. engchi. to receive praise from my parents. #16. er. grades.. sit. y. Nat. #10. Original Version. ‧. #5. 學. Item. ‧ 國. Table 3.4 Modification of the SIEM. B: I study only because I want to receive praise from my parents.. i n U. v. is Not the only reason that I study.. B: Getting praises from my parents is the Only reason that I study.. A: I like difficult problems.. A: I prefer difficult tasks.. B: I like easy problems.. B: I prefer easy tasks.. #17. 31.

(46) 3.3.3 Pilot Study. In order to make sure the revised questionnaire items were comprehensible to children so as to obtain the necessary data for the present study, a pilot study was then carried out. To ensure a better likelihood of success in the formal test, the proper number of participants in the pilot study was one-fifth to one-fourth of the formal study as recommended (Chang, 2008). The researcher, therefore, recruited 6 male and 6 female volunteer participants from 3rd to 6th grades each, making the total number. 政治大. 48, which was more than one-fifth of 214, the total number of participants in the. 立. formal test. All of the questionnaires were completely filled out and returned. All of. ‧ 國. 學. the participants demonstrated a full understanding of all the items in the questionnaires in the interview.. ‧ er. io. sit. y. Nat. 3.3.4 Reliability of the Two Questionnaires. al. n. v i n Ch The data collected from the pilot study were analyzed e n g c h i Uto make sure the reliability of the two questionnaires. The Cronbach alpha of all the items in the two questionnaires, the MALESC and the SIEM, ranged from .72 to .95, which according to Wu (2005) were rather credible. The reliability of the three subscales in the MALESC were measured and reached Cronbach alpha index of .84 in the ‘intrinsic motivation’ subscale, .81 in the ‘interest in foreign countries’, and .76 in the ‘extrinsic motivation’. The Cronbach alpha of the MALESC was .89, showing an acceptable reliability (See Table 3.5).. 32.

(47) Table 3.5 Reliability Analysis for the MALESC EFL Motivation. Number Of Items. Cronbach Alpha. Intrinsic Motivation. 4. 0.84. Interests in Foreign Countries. 5. 0.81. Extrinsic Motivation. 4. 0.76. As for the SIEM, the result indicated a rather acceptable Cronbach alpha for all six subscales, too. In the phase of curiosity, the Cronbach alpha was .77, in ‘causality’, .79, in ‘mastery’, .81, in ‘attribution’, .76, in ‘challenge’, .95, and in. 政治大 Therefore, all the items 立of the two questionnaires were kept without any further ‘enjoyment’, .72. And the overall reliability index reached .88 (See Table 3.6).. ‧ 國. 學. changes required.. ‧. Cronbach Alpha. Nat. 5. y. 0.77. 5. 0.79. Curiosity Causality. Attribution Challenge. al. 5. n. Mastery. Ch. er. Number of Items. io. Overall Intrinsic Learning Motivation. sit. Table 3.6 Reliability Analysis for the SIEM. v ni. 0.81. 5 engchi U. 0.76. 5. 0.95. 5. 0.72. Enjoyment. 3.3.5 Implementation. In the formal test, before the administration, participants were informed to answer the questionnaire items anonymously, and all their responses would be confidential without any consequential influence on school grades. In order to avoid. 33.

(48) the negative effects resulting from children’s short attention span and tiredness, the two questionnaires were completed in 10 to 15 minutes approximately in two different days within a week. Furthermore, the students in this school are regrouped into new classes in 3rd and 5th grades and are assigned with new homeroom teachers and subject teachers, which may cause students’ uneasiness and worries. To avoid the effect of the negative emotion, the whole data collection was done at the end of November, 2015, which was about three months after the start of a new term, when most of the participants from 3rd and 5th grades managed to get used to the new. 治政大 teachers, classmates, and things in school. 立 ‧ 國. 學. The MALESC and the SIEM questionnaires given to 214 participants in the selected elementary school were all filled out and returned completely by December. ‧. 2015, making the return ratio and the effective ratio of the two questionnaires 100%.. n. er. io. al. sit. y. Nat. 3.4 Data Analysis. i n U. v. After the administration of the questionnaires, the data were analyzed to answer. Ch. engchi. the research questions. Both of quantitative and qualitative analysis methods and skills were included in this study to serve the research purposes. The quantitative methods were applied to answer the first and third research questions. The data were mainly from the two questionnaires, the MALESC and the SIEM. The qualitative skills were used to analyze the six open-ended questions. The first research question aimed to examine whether young learners’ EFL learning motivation decreased as their age increased. To find the answers to the assumption that when children grew older, their motivation for EFL learning went 34.

(49) down, the two sets of continuous scores, age and motivation, collected by the MALESC, were analyzed with ANOVA to see if age had a significant influence on the changes of EFL learning motivation throughout the four grade levels. Then, to answer the second research question, not only the quantitative results of the MALESC, but also the data obtained by the open-ended question 1 was examined qualitatively for specific underlying EFL learning motive factors among Taiwanese pupils. The given responses were divided into three main categories: the intrinsic motive, the extrinsic motive, and the interests for foreign countries as those in the. 治政大 4, 5, and 6 seemed not to MALESC (Carreira, 2006). Though open-ended questions 立 ‧ 國. 學. directly relate to the research questions of the present study, the answers to the questions may provide not only reasons and explanations for the results of the. ‧. research questions, but also important information for researchers and teachers for. Nat. sit. y. further studies and effective teaching. What’s more, the open-ended questions 2 and 3. n. al. er. io. were also examined qualitatively because the information may provide the potential. i n U. v. factors for the result of the third research question. The researcher used the taxonomy. Ch. engchi. to code all 214 questionnaires. Following the tradition of qualitative studies, the responses were further analyzed according to the recurring themes. Through the frequencies and the themes of the answers mentioned by the participants, the researcher may find out details about the motivating factors that potentially affect children’s EFL and overall learning. Finally, the third research question aimed to explore if there was a relationship between intrinsic motivation for overall learning and motivation for EFL learning. To reach the goal, the data collected from the SIEM had to be analyzed with ANOVA to 35.

(50) obtain the intrinsic motivation variable first. After that, the two sets of variables generated from the SIEM and the MALESC were analyzed with Pearson Correlation Coefficient to see the degree of relationship between the two variables because this product-moment correlation coefficient (r), which had a small standard error, was the most widely used bivariate correlational technique in educational research (Gall et al., 1996). Table 3.7 Data Analysis Research Questions. Instruments. Data Analysis. 政治大 One-way ANOVA between. MALESC (Questionnaire. 立. for EFL learning age and EFL motivation. motivation). 學. Recurring themes coded into three categories: Intrinsic. ‧. ‧ 國. The First Question. Open-ended Questions for. The Second Question. motives, Interests for. y. Nat. EFL learning motivation motives. n. al. er. io. sit. foreign countries, Extrinsic. Ch. i n U. v. 1. One-way ANOVA. engchi. between age and intrinsic. MALESC and SIEM. motivation (SIEM) (Questionnaire for overall The Third Questions. 2. Pearson Correlation intrinsic learning Coefficient investigating the motivation) relationship between MALESC and SIEM. 36.

(51) The whole procedure was presented as Fig. 2. Fig. 2 The Whole Procedure. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 37. i n U. v.


(53) CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS In this chapter, the researcher showed the results of both quantitative and qualitative analyses that answered the three research questions. The data collected for the first and third research questions were analyzed with statistical methods, including ANOVA and Pearson Correlation. The qualitative data were coded according to the traditions of qualitative studies by recurring themes and frequencies. In the first part, the data obtained from the MALESC were measured with. 治政 ANOVA to check if age had significant influence 大 over the development and changes 立 ‧ 國. 學. of the pupils’ EFL learning motivation.. In the second part, the results gathered through the MALESC along with the. ‧. information collected from open-ended question 1 were analyzed either quantitatively. Nat. sit. y. or qualitatively in order to see the underlying factors that motivated EFL learning. n. al. er. io. among Taiwanese students. The rest of the open-ended questions were also examined. i n U. v. qualitatively to explore the useful information for the present study, future studies as well as for teachers.. Ch. engchi. Finally, in the third part, the data obtained from the SIEM were examined with ANOVA first because this result served as one of the two variables for the analysis of the third research question. Then, Pearson Correlation was applied to compute the data collected from the results of the MALESC and the SIEM, measuring to what extent the two kinds of motivation were correlated.. 39.

(54) 4.1 The Result of Quantitative Analysis of the MALESC The computed statistic results of MALESC demonstrated an increase rather than a decrease of EFL motivation among the pupils although there was a moderate decline in the 4th grade. This was especially the case in the “extrinsic motivation” category for its mean scores rose from 3.18 in 3rd grade to 3.36 in 6th grade (See Fig. 3). Fig. 3 The Development of Participants’ EFL Learning Motivation. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The ANOVA results of the MALESC showed a p values of 0.599 in the ‘intrinsic motivation’ subscale, 0.476 in the ‘interest in foreign countries’, and 0.075 in the ‘extrinsic motivation’ respectively, indicating that age had no significant effect on the changes of EFL learning motivation because none of the p values of < .05 were found. The mean scores of each subscale actually remained rather high, ranging from 3.07 to 3.36, throughout all grade groups despite the declines of all three subscales in 4th grade (See Table 4.1). 40.

(55) Table 4.1 The Result of ANOVA for the Effect of Age on EFL Learning Motivation Subscale. Grade Number. MS. SD. 3. 54. 3.18. 0.94. 4. 52. 3.07. 0.75. 5. 54. 3.16. 0.87. 6. 54. 3.31. 0.71. 3. 54. 3.26. 0.97. 4. 52. 3.14. 1.03. 5. 54. 3.21. 0.95. 6 54 3.31 治政大 3 54 3.18. 0.86. Intrinsic Motivation. Interest in Foreign Countries. 立. 52. 3.18. 5. 54. 3.3. 6. 54. 3.36. ‧ 國. 0.626. 0.599. 0.868. 0.476. 2.331. 0.075. 0.87 0.83 0.78. ‧. N=214. P. 0.99. 學. 4. Extrinsic Motivation. F. io. sit. y. Nat. er. 4.2 The Main Factors for EFL Learning Among Taiwanese Pupils. al. n. v i n In this part, there were C two main sections: first, the statistic results obtained from hengchi U. the MALESC and second, the qualitative results from the open-ended question 1.. 4.2.1 The Result of the MALESC. According to the results of the MALESC, the main underlying EFL learning factors among Taiwanese pupils were mostly the extrinsic ones, indicating a lot of students were learning English for practical rewards (e.g. schools and jobs) and utilitarian purposes (e.g. traveling). 41.

國小學童EFL學習動機與一般性內在學習動機之關係 －以新北市國小為例 - 政大學術集成

國小學童EFL學習動機與一般性內在學習動機之關係－以新北市國小為例 - 政大學術集成