A Longitudinal Study of Motivation, Interest, Can-Do and Willingness to Communicate in Foreign Language Activities among Japanese Fifth-Grade Students
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概要
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This paper focuses on a longitudinal study of students' motivation, willingness to communicate (WTC), perceived competency (Can-Do), interest in language and interest in other subjects in an EFL classroom context among young Japanese learners. During the year 2008-2009, thrity-five hours of English classes were planned for 106 fifth grade students, aged 10 to 11, integrating themes associated with "countries in the world and Japan" that was aimed at creating an understanding of the importance of the mutually dependent relationship between Japan and other countries. A longitudinal study was conducted during year 2008-2009 in which questionnaires were given to students in April, July, November and February to examine changes in their motivation, interest, WTC and Can-Do. The result of descriptive statistics and repeated measurement of analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that students with longer study hours tended to either maintain or show a decline in their motivation, interest, WTC and Can-Do. In addition, cluster analysis which was carried out to describe the underlying individual differences in motivation, interest, Can-Do and WTC showed three distinct groups could be identified among the students. In addition to quantitative analysis, qualitative data in the form of Japanese teachers' observation notes was obtained in order to support the quantitative study, which also showed how students changed, as well as difficulties appearing in the classroom situation during the classroom practice.