This exploratory, retrospective study, which focuses on the needs, attitudes, and emotions of learners attending English as a foreign language courses at the Open University of the University of Warsaw is part of a larger scale project which aims at answering calls voiced, among others, by Boulton-Lewis (2010) to gather more data from older adults…

This study focuses on prisoners' motivation for participation in educational programs within a remand prison in Flanders (Belgium), using a standardized questionnaire (N = 486). Descriptive, bivariate, and logistic regression analyses are used to map differences in educational motives. The results show that 29% of the respondents participated in…

This study examined English Learners' (ELs) self-efficacy beliefs in a U.S. university setting by using a survey, interviews, and focus group discussions. The results identified that ELs from different disciplines had positive self-efficacy beliefs about their overall English learning, and self efficacy was related to ELs' age, years of English…

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which parental beliefs about children's literacy motivation is associated with their literacy practices at home. A sample of 315 parents of preschool-aged children participated in the study, and completed a newly developed questionnaire pursuant to the aims of this work. Thus, the construct of…

Over the past decades there has been a dramatic increase in academic research on motivation to learn a second or foreign language (L2). The present study tried to investigate the relationship between the ideal L2 self as a motivational variable and willingness to communicate in English (L2 WTC) inside the classroom. Participants were 56 university…

Recent findings (see, for example, Muñoz and Singleton, 2011) indicate that age of onset is not a strong determinant of instructed foreign language (FL) learners' achievement and that age is intricately connected with social and psychological factors shaping the learner's overall FL experience. The present study, accordingly, takes a…

The aim of this study was to examine Norwegian prisoners' educational motives, and how previous incarceration, sentence length, and sentence served influence such motives. Three motive categories emerged: future planning (Factor 1), social reasons and escapism (Factor 2), and competence building (Factor 3). Among prisoners who participated in…

This paper aims to give a picture of Greek students' views about biology and some of the factors that affect them. A questionnaire measuring students' intrinsic motivation to learn biology, individual interest in biology and perceived difficulty of biology, along with information about students' gender, level, parents' occupation and educational…

In this qualitative study the author focuses on age effects on young learners' L2 development by comparing the L2 learning processes of six young learners in an instructed setting: three who had started learning English as L2 at age 6/7 and three who had started at age 9/10. Both earlier and later young beginners were followed for three years…

Universities are challenged with finding ways to motivate the increasing number of diverse students so that the largest number of students can be expected to succeed. University success is measured by retention and graduation rates, which affect profit. A lack of academic motivation among increasingly diverse students influences student retention,…

E-learning has become an important tool to impart education. This study examines the awareness and perception of e-learning among Indian students enrolled for a business management course at a premier business school. It is generally perceived that since Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is universally acknowledged for its quality…

Today's societies strive toward not leaving any children behind in their educational systems. Efficacy of educational inputs and processes is of paramount importance in today's education. Research studies can provide essential input in efforts toward attaining such efficacy. Thus, the purpose of this study was to test if high school students'…

Early exposure to science may have a lifelong effect on children's attitudes towards science and their motivation to learn science in later life. Out-of-class environments can play a significant role in creating favourable attitudes, while contributing to conceptual learning. Educational science theatre is one form of an out-of-class environment,…

This study aims to examine how and why students transform in terms of learning motivation in learning the Cantonese opera with a teacher-artist partnership approach in Hong Kong schools. An artist and seven teachers from four schools collaborated to teach the genre for eight weeks. Students' learning motivation changes in Cantonese opera was…

Numerous studies have been carried out to investigate motivation; however, limited research has been done to evaluate how age differences have an impact on the second language learning pattern. This study, therefore, investigated how gender differences place impact on a group of Chinese immigrant students' motivation to learn English. It is hoped…