to enrich our understanding of the attitudinal/motivational basis of foreign language learning at junior high school level, this study investigated the students’ status of l2 motivation, the relationship between motivational factors, and the possibility of predicting their motivated learning behavior in light of dörnyei’s (2005, 2009) theory of l2 motivational self system. to this end, 1462 jun...

the idea is growing among educators that thinking skill needs to be given a direct attention. on one hand, critical thinking is supposed to broaden students’ thinking in all regards (schafersman, 1991); and on the other hand learners’ attitudes towards the second language can affect both their performance in the class and their final accomplishment. to this end, the present study started with t...

This study examines the relationship between both first language (L1) and second language (L2) reading attitudes, and learners' performance in L2 extensive reading. Four reading attitude variables were identified (Comfort, Anxiety, Value, Self-perception), both in L1 and L2, according to learners' responses to a questionnaire. Results of analyses using these four variables are summarised on two...

This work investigated crosslinguistic perception of Mandarin utterances conveying six classes of attitudes, i.e., dominant/ submissive, friendly/hostile, polite/rude, serious/joking, praising/blaming, and sincere/insincere. Five groups of subjects were tested: native Mandarin speakers, Japanese L2 learners of Mandarin, French L2 learners of Mandarin, naïve Japanese without Mandarin ability, an...

Motivation can be conceptualized as a dynamic process which is a key contributor to mastering a second language. This study used the L2-Motivational Self System as the basis for a conceptual framework for studying the effects of external factors on learners' motivation. In particular, the role of teachers and parents was studied as the external facets of predicting learners' motivation. One hun...