With rapid globalization, it is an urgent task for universities in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context to provide practical English education. Particularly, one that enables students to participate in the global society as well as the global business market. The challenge for these universities is to achieve this goal with limited class…

The present study investigated the impact of a utility-value intervention on students' behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement. Students assigned to the intervention condition were required to write an essay to connect the course contents with their personal hobbies, interests, or goals three times during the course. The results showed…

This study aimed to examine the effect of incorporating the generative pre-trained AI chatbot, ChatGPT, into an instructor-led writing class on the motivation of Japanese university students. This study examines changes in students' Ideal L2 Self, Ought-to L2 Self, and L2 Learning Experience using Dörnyei's L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS)…

This study compares two leadership styles, emergent leader (EL) and assigned leader (AL), to explore effective leadership in second language (L2) group work. ELs were spontaneously chosen by the group, while ALs were pre-assigned by teachers before the task. The study involved 45 university students, who were divided into seven EL groups (n = 21)…

Given the importance of academic motivation, numerous inquiries have scrutinized the antecedents of this psycho-emotional variable in various educational environments. Nonetheless, the role of students' attitudes in their academic motivation has remained elusive. Put simply, it is unclear whether students' attitudes can make positive changes in…

Despite progress in recent years, Japanese classrooms continue to present challenges for educators seeking to promote language learner autonomy. Adopting an action research/case study design, the present study explored how, in a 5-week student-led project, an intact group of learners could contribute to the development of their own autonomy. Data…

Video streaming is a common social practice in modern society, especially among today's youth. Many people are also using these services as a resource for informal learning. However, few studies have examined the use of video streaming for self-directed foreign language (FL) learning beyond the classroom. The present study addresses this research…

This quasi-experimental study reports on the outcomes of a video-synchronous learning program in which an element of project-based foreign language learning was integrated. The project chosen was to cooperatively create a homepage. American students learning Japanese in the United States and Japanese students learning English in Japan made pairs…

Due to its accessibility and popularity, anime has been explored as a motivation for learning Japanese and as a pedagogical tool linking Japanese-as-a-foreign-language (JFL) literacy practices inside and outside of the classroom. However, JFL learners' actual practices in anime-mediated self-directed learning have not been fully investigated.…

Over the past 15 years, the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009) has been a dominant framework in the field of second language (L2) motivation. Yet, since the model's introduction, there has been a theoretical discordance between the two components associated with future self-images (the ideal L2 self and the ought-to L2 self) and the…

Recent studies elaborating on the L2 learning experience component of the L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009), especially through a narrative identity perspective, mark a new direction in L2 motivation research. This paper extends this work by exploring the connection between the L2 learning experience and ideal L2 self components.…

In this study, the authors investigated the attitudes of Japanese junior high school students towards studying English from the perspective of the Self-worth Theory. A total of 383 students aged 12 to 15 years participated in the qualitative study. Students were required to write three essays about how they would react under hypothetical…

Computer-mediated learning initiatives have recently increased due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Implications are thus created for self-regulation, learning and achievement as computer-mediated learners face unique motivational and metacognitive demands. The current research uses a serial mediation approach to test the effect of goal…

In Japan, calls for students to become global human resources (GHR) has placed pressure on universities to internationalise. Traditionally, Japanese universities have relied on student mobility to foster GHR, but a decline in mobility numbers has highlighted the need for educators and administrators to consider how an intercultural mindset can be…

The present paper aims to explore how a certain class mode emerges in the context of collaborative learning, which affects student motivation and learning. Multiple sources of data were collected from 51 high school students in three different classes (named A, B and C) where the same teacher gave them the same lesson content throughout a full…