Who am I? "I am a Swifty!" Some Stories from EFL Learners

Abstract

This paper aims to report stories of two Thai learners who were purposively selected from a quantitative study of 233 freshmen. They study English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the monolingual context. They were formally interviewed three times about their L2 motivation and learning experiences using narrative inquiry. Narrative data were supplemented by such personal and social artifacts as their memorable photos. The Ideal L2 self and the person-in-context relational view of motivation were used to analyze multifaceted aspects of both individual and contextual factors shaping their L2 self and identity. The findings suggested that they seemed to envision themselves becoming proficient English users. However, one student had stronger visions than another one. His L2 self and identity were highly influenced by the American pop culture, social media, and social networking from school to university. His desirable self-image tended to be strengthened by his sustained effort to communicate in English both inside and outside class. By applying the findings, stories of two participants can be used as exceptional cases, rather than generalizable, and as a basis for developing a series of pedagogical strategies which might be tested in the field of language teaching in the future.

Underprivileged Students’ Second Language Motivation: Cases of Three Highly-Motivated Non-English Major Students

“…Thai students tend to have limited opportunities to use English in their daily life, especially those who live in less developed areas. The lack of opportunities to use English outside of the classrooms (Draper, 2012;Prapunta, 2017) and issues regarding access to quality English education (Atagi, 2011;Draper, 2012;Hayes, 2014;Kirkpatrick, 2012;Sanonguthai, 2014) in certain areas have contributed to problems regarding students' English proficiency and motivation in the language.…”