Impacts of Personality, International Attitudes, and Socially Constructed Beliefs on Self-related Motivation and L2 Production Performance among Japanese Learners of English

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This paper investigates results and antecedents of self-related motivation among Japanese university learners of English by establishing learner characteristics linked with Dornyei's (2005) L2 motivational self system. Through an extensive review of past studies, I hypothesized the interrelationships among ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, L2 learning experience, international posture, social importance of learning English, thickness-thinness of mental boundaries, intended effort to learn the L2, and the quality of L2 performance evaluated by complexity/fluency. Two studies were conducted to examine these relationships. The purpose of the first study was to use a structural equation model to evaluate the proposed model showing the impact of learner characteristics on the intended effort; this study was based on data from 174 students who completed a questionnaire. This model was found to fit the data well. In the second study, the links between the components of the model and the performance features were examined using written data obtained from the 123 participants in the first survey. Results from correlational and multiple regression analyses mostly supported the hypothesized relationships. Based on these findings, the attributes of motivational capacity to produce "international self" were discussed from the whole-person, developmental, and intergenerational perspectives.
2012-10-30