Yang Presents Dissertation Research
AAAL March 2019
Preview of Lu Yang’s Dissertation Research (part 1): “Development and Validation of a Motivation Survey for English Learners in China”
While considerable studies have examined students’ motivation in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, a majority of them focused on high school and university students. The motivation survey items used in these studies may not be applicable to EFL learners in elementary schools.
In a recent comprehensive review of research on motivation and language teaching, Lamb (2017) called for more motivation research on young language learners. Similarly, Butler (2015) highlighted English acquisition among young learners in Asia can help build child second language acquisition theory.
The present study developed and validated a motivation survey for upper elementary English learners (ELs) in China using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses across three samples. We found evidence that ideal L2 self, ought to L2 self, English learning experience, parent-oriented motivation, peer-oriented motivation are unidimensional constructs of motivation among upper elementary ELs in China.
