Effects of Study-Abroad Experiences on Chinese Students ’ L2 Learning Activities and Study-Abroad Motivations

Abstract

This study explores how overseas exchange opportunities might influence Chinese students ’ engagement in L2 learning activities and how far such opportunities may satisfy their motivation to study abroad. The analysis of the data, collected and filtered from carefully designed questionnaires and interviews, showed that students ’ L2 learning activities and study-abroad motivations underwent changes after their overseas experiences. Regarding the former, the overseas environment was the cause of the change because it provided students with more chances to talk with native speakers and increased the frequency of their using L2 in their daily life. Regarding the latter, the decline of the students ’ major study-abroad motivations was partly because they tended to treat L2 learning as a tool for realizing other goals and partly because the students had got other important motivations. In view of these findings, suggestions were raised to help future students get better prepared for their overseas study or short-term exchange life.

Exploring L2 Motivational Dynamics Among Chinese EAP Learners in an EMI Context From a Socio-cultural Perspective

“…Firstly, the results reveal that the respondents became significantly strengthened in the overall level of their motivation and in four motivational components related to learning English for studying/working abroad , for taking English as the medium of acquiring information , for the sake of important social agents , and for the specific learning situations . The statistically significant increase in the participants’ motivation at the EMI university lends support to previous studies that an EMI context could exert a positive influence upon L2 motivation (i.e., T. Chen & Chen, 2021; Hennebry & Gao, 2021; Lázaro-Ibarrola & Azpilicueta-Martínez, 2021; Q.…”

“…However, this does not lead to a reduction in motivation to learn English among the participants. Instead, this might be connected with the shift of the immediate need from improving English language proficiency for obtaining high marks in senior middle school to uplifting competence of using English as a tool to facilitate the study of content subjects at the EMI environment (T. Chen & Chen, 2021; Du & Jackson, 2021).…”

“…The mediating effect of studying content subjects in English is also acknowledged by the interviewees on their motivation to learn EAP at the university. Using English to study content subjects seems to have enhanced the learners’ instrumental motivation by offering more opportunities for them to get exposed to rich variety of linguistic input and technique terms in particular (T. Chen & Chen, 2021; Somers & Llinares, 2021).…”

“…Li, 2014). The increase in learner motivation mainly stems from the opportunities for using the target language to interact with the native speakers (T. Chen & Chen, 2021), and for creating collaborative learning experience (W.…”

“…Existing studies have firstly explored the development of L2 motivation in the study-abroad settings of ESL contexts where courses are delivered following the EMI provision. The EMI instruction in the study-abroad environment is reported to be effective in enhancing L2 motivation of learners, a stronger ideal L2 self in particular (i.e., T. Chen & Chen, 2021; X.…”