HOME BACKGROUND, TECHNOLOGY AND

SELF-RELATED MOTIVATION TO LEARN ENGLISH

Martin LambUniversity of Leeds

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN L2 MOTIVATION THEORY

L2 motivational self-system (Dörnyei, 2009) Ideal L2 Self Ought-to L2 Self Learning Experience

Role of technology in L2 motivation Provides instrumental motive for learning?

(Ought-to L2 self) Part of vision of future self? (Ideal L2 Self) Important means of learning? (Learning

Experience)

L2 MOTIVATIONAL SELF-SYSTEM

EMPIRICAL FINDINGS SO FAR Ideal L2 Self contributes strongly to motivated

learning behaviour (e.g. Ryan 2009; Csizér & Kormos, 2009; Taguchi et al., 2009)

Instrumentality can be divided into ‘promotion’ (correlating with Ideal L2 Self) and ‘prevention’ (correlating with Ought-to L2 Self)

BUT Role of Ought-to L2 Self still unclear No research yet with learners before senior high

school No research yet about emergence of Ideal L2 Selves

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How well does the L2 Motivational Self-System model represent the motivation of Indonesian teenagers to learn English in three distinct educational settings (metropolitan, urban, rural), and does it predict proficiency (as measured in c-test)?

Is there systematic variation in the L2 self-guides of the three settings?

What aspects of sociocultural milieu contribute to the growth of Ideal L2 Selves in the rural setting? (Phase 2)

Junior high school (JHS)13, Jambi district

JHS 14 Bandung, Java

METHOD

QUESTIONNAIRE 50-item instrument using 6-point Likert

Scale, targeting 11 different constructs 1 criterion measure (‘motivated learning

behaviour’), 2 self-related constructs, 5 attitudinal (e.g. learning experience, international posture) and 3 scales measuring influence of milieu (family, peers, teachers)

Items borrowed/adapted from Dörnyei's own item pool

SAMPLE Translated into Indonesian, piloted twice Administered by myself and assistants

Schools N

Bandung – JHS 14 (4 classes) 153

Jambi – JHS7 (6 classes) 205

Outside Jambi (3 different JHS, 8 classes) 169

SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS Depressed reliability coefficients for some

scales ( in range 0.6 - 0.7) Ought-to L2 Self scale particularly

unreliable, but when combined with ‘family influence’ = .725

SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS Generally positive attitudes towards

English and learning process

Scales Sample Mean SD F p Sequence

Ideal L2 self Metropolitan 5.21 .49 16.6 .000 3 < 1, 2

Urban 5.25 .46

Rural 4.95 .63

Ought-to L2 self /family values

Metropolitan 5.16 .55 25.0 .000 3 < 1 < 2

Urban 5.31 .51

Rural 4.89 .65

SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Variable B SE B beta

Learning experience out of school .40 .04 .31*

Learning experience in school .26 .05 .25*

Ideal L2 self .18 .05 .17*

Anxiety -.15 .03 -.17*

R2 .57

Ideal L2 Self does contribute to ‘motivated learning behaviour’, but not as much as ‘learning experience’

*p < .000

ICT SKILLS How well can you use a computer (for

email/internet)?

[0 = no ability, 1 = some ability, 2 = able]

Strong effect for region (Chi sq, x2 = 269.8, p < .000)

0 1 20

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

ICT SKILLS Controlling for region, computer skills

showed mild correlation with 4 variables:

High correlation with English proficiency (r = .541, p<.000), but controlling for region it is much lower (r = .202, p<.000)

variable r

Ought-to L2 self /family values .251*

Ideal L2 Self .231*

International Posture .173*

Learning English outside of school .172*

*p < .000

AN INCIDENT IN JHS 8, BATANGHARI VILLAGE Mobiles phones in the classroom Extract from Indonesian teenagers

messaging on facebook: “:) bawaan ngantuk, jd last word x th terlewatkan ynk. :) when u'll back to home town?”

‘Truncated repertoires’ (Blommaert, 2010) English as a BlackberryTM?