The study aimed to identify different second language (L2) learner motivational types drawing on the framework of the L2 motivational self system. A total of 1,278 secondary school students learning English in Iran completed a questionnaire survey. Cluster analysis yielded five different groups based on the strength of different variables within…

While consensus exists about the critical role of learners’ motivation in second language acquisition, controlled investigations of the effects of teachers’ motivational strategies are limited. The research reported here used a quasi-experimental design to assess the effects of motivational strategies used by Saudi English as a foreign language…

This study examined the motivation to learn English of Indonesian junior high school pupils, 13-14 years of age, in three distinct contexts: a metropolitan city, a provincial town, and a rural district. Utilizing Dornyei's second language (L2) Motivational Self System as the theoretical framework, this study employed a 50-item questionnaire to…

This article reports on a mixed-methods study of Chinese university students' knowledge of and attitudes toward plagiarism in English academic writing. A sample of 270 undergraduates from two Chinese universities rated three short English passages under different conditions, provided open-ended responses to justify their ratings, and completed a…

Recent theorizing on second language (L2) motivation has proposed viewing motivation as a function of the language learners' vision of their desired future language selves. This would suggest that the intensity of motivation is partly dependent on the learners' capability to generate mental imagery. In order to test this hypothesis, this study…

Investigates the relationship between test takers' strategy and their performance on second-language tests (SLTP) comprising an 80-item Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategy Questionnaire and a 70-item standardized language test. Results explain SLTP by grammar and reading ability; cognitive processing by comprehending, storing, and retrieval…

Presents a study of methodological validation in speech act research. Discourse-Completion tests (DCTs) and multiple-choice questionnaires (MCQs) designed to elicit requests were administered to two groups of Japanese female undergraduates. Significant differences were found in most situations, with those students completing the MCQ choosing to…

Examines whether the "foreign language effect", that is, a temporary decline of thinking ability during foreign language processing, is larger when similarity between a foreign language and a native language is less. The results of two divided-attention experiments indicate that this effect was larger when the native tongue was less…

Examines the components of motivation in foreign language learning in institutional/academic settings without regular interaction with the target language community. A motivational questionnaire to define the relevance and characteristics of integration and instrumentality in foreign language learning was developed and administered to learners of…

Investigated the emergence of orientations and their relation to motivation in a predominantly monolingual context. Participants were 93 Quebec City francophone Grade 11 high school students learning English as a Second Language. (Author/JL)

The study reported on in this article set out to replicate and extend Bardovi-Harlig and Dornyei's (1998) investigation of pragmatic awareness by addressing two research questions: (a) Do learners in English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) contexts display differences in their recognition and rating of pragmatic…

Discusses an attempt to establish the vocabulary learning strategies used by Chinese university learners of English in Beijing and the relationship between their strategies and outcomes in learning English. Findings reveal that two metacognitive strategies emerged as positive predictors of vocabulary test scores and that visual repetition of new…

This study applied social psychological constructs to examine the linguistic attitudes and motivations of 301 Hungarian high school students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Factor and correlational analyses of the results of a survey questionnaire revealed that xenophilic, sociocultural, instrumental, and media-use reasons were most…