Profiling Chinese university students’ motivation to learn multiple languages

Yongyan Zheng · Xiuchuan Lu · Wei Ren

114 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Multilingual Education and Policy Second Language Learning and Teaching

Abstract

This study extends our understanding of Chinese university students’ motivation to learn languages other than English (LOTEs) by adding a contextual dimension to the L2 Motivational Self System. The study drew on Higgins’ ([1987]. “Self-discrepancy: A Theory Relating Self and Affect.” Psychological Review 94: 319–340.) original Own-Other standpoints and Lanvers’ ([2016]. “Lots of Selves, Some Rebellious: Developing the Self Discrepancy Model for Language Learners.” System 60: 79–92.; [2017]. “Contradictory Others and the Habitus of Languages: Surveying the L2 Motivation Landscape in the United Kingdom.” The Modern Language Journal 101 (3): 517–532.) Self-Discrepancy Theory for Language Learners to enrich the framework, and recruited two different learner groups with Chinese as their first language and English as their second language – voluntary learners of Spanish as a third language and non-voluntary learners of Spanish. The Q-methodology was applied to profile these two groups’ multilingual selves, with four motivational profiles emerging from the analysis: self-motivated with multilingual posture, self-motivated with instrumentality, other-motivated with promotion-focused instrumentality, and other-motivated with prevention-focused instrumentality. The findings revealed that multilingual posture was prominent in the self-motivated learners’ investment in learning Spanish, and the other-motivated learners were subjugated to the macro-level sociological influences of global English and the national foreign language policy. Our findings also suggested a potential gate-keeping role of global English in conceptualising non-Anglophone learners’ LOTE learning motivation. This paper concludes with some methodological and theoretical implications for future LOTE learning motivation research.

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References

1987Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education.1987Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect.1986Possible selves.1985Social psychology and second language learning : the role of attitudes and motivation 1998Promotion and Prevention: Regulatory Focus as A Motivational Principle 20092. The L2 Motivational Self System 2015The Psychology of the Language Learner Revisited 2011Teaching and Researching Motivation

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