A longitudinal study of attitudes and motivation in learning English among Japanese seventh-grade students

Abstract

This research examined longitudinally over one year attitudinal and motivational changes of 296 Japanese 7th-grade students learning English. Levels of student's interest and emotion, study habits, perceived utility of English and familiarity with English-speaking people, as well as degree of parental encouragement, and self-rated attainment all decreased from the beginning of the school year until the third or seventh month, being followed by a stabilizing trend after those periods. Student's goals became realistic after the learning for one year. Students with initially high English ability performed better and showed more positive attitudes and motivation than those with initially low ability, whereas the former were suggested to be more vulnerable to the junior high school environment than the latter. Girls had higher scores than boys in most attitudinal and motivational variables, although girls had a lower expectancy of their own performance than boys in the goal-setting area. Instrumental and integrative types of motivation in learning English were not differentiated in the students' perceptions at the beginning of their English education in the seventh grade.

Understanding Motivational Fluctuations among Young Rural EFL Learners : A Longitudinal Case Study

“…A possible explanation for the declines in motivation is the transition problem-from primary school to junior high school-which impact greatly on young learners (Chambers, 2019;Koizumi & Matsuo, 1993). English learning at primary school level is usually fun and easy, but when they get to junior high school, it becomes more test-oriented and focused on memorizing vocabulary, acquiring grammatical rules, and translations, which are the popular strategies for senior high school entrance exam preparation in Taiwan.…”

“…English learning at primary school level is usually fun and easy, but when they get to junior high school, it becomes more test-oriented and focused on memorizing vocabulary, acquiring grammatical rules, and translations, which are the popular strategies for senior high school entrance exam preparation in Taiwan. Therefore, as students get older, learning English in traditional way becomes difficult and is very much less fun than it used to be (Koizumi & Matsuo, 1993).…”

Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning: Change, Stability, and Context

“…On the other hand, the developmental variation observed in student motivation has also included occasional stable periods or predictable patterns, the second of the three main features of a dynamic system. For example, Koizumi and Matsuo (1993) found that after a sudden decrease in motivation following the transition to junior high school, students' motivation settled into an equilibrium. In a qualitative study examining motivational evolution over the lifespan, Shoaib and Dörnyei (2005) elicited a number of recurring temporal patterns and key transformational episodes affecting motivation, including for example transitions to new life phases (such as leaving school and entering the world of work) or the experience of visiting an English-speaking environment.…”

Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning: Change, Stability, and Context

“…On the other hand, the developmental variation observed in student motivation has also included occasional stable periods or predictable patterns, the second of the three main features of a dynamic system. For example, Koizumi and Matsuo () found that after a sudden decrease in motivation following the transition to junior high school, students' motivation settled into an equilibrium. In a qualitative study examining motivational evolution over the lifespan, Shoaib and Dörnyei () elicited a number of recurring temporal patterns and key transformational episodes affecting motivation, including for example transitions to new life phases (such as leaving school and entering the world of work) or the experience of visiting an English‐speaking environment.…”