Learning experience reigns – Taiwanese learners’ motivation in learning eight additional languages as compared to English

Abstract

Informed by Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self System and intended to fill a gap in learning motivation research on languages other than English (LOTEs), this study investigated learners’ motivation for three language clusters – Southeast Asian (Vietnamese, Thai and Malay), Northeast Asian (Japanese and Korean) and European (German, Spanish and French) – and compared the results against the same learners’ English learning motivation. Regression analyses revealed that for all three language groups, the strongest predictors of intended effort were learning experience, followed by ideal self and culture/community interest. Ought-to self and instrumentality, both promotional and preventive, were ruled out in all three LOTE regression models. The significance of learning experience as a motivational predictor was comparatively new in LOTE-related findings. These learners’ English learning motivation presented a similar but more complicated picture, with predictive variables being, in descending order, learning attitude, culture/community interest, learning experience, ideal self and instrumentality. While externally imposed motivators played a role in English, they did not do so for the same learners in LOTE situations. Discrepancies with earlier results concerning LOTE motivation as well as with similar learner populations are discussed. Implications for both pedagogical practice and the theoretical development of foreign language motivation are suggested.