Parrish, A. orcid.org/0000-0003-2458-172X, Noels, K.A. orcid.org/0000-0002-9881-4242 and Zhang, X. orcid.org/0000-0003-0680-7422 (2024) Self-determination across the secondary-school years: how teachers and curriculum policy affect language learners’ motivation. The Language Learning Journal. ISSN 0957-1736
Abstract
Motivation is argued to be a critical predictor of language learning success, but it is not clear whether motivation is equally relevant across compulsory and optional language education contexts. This study explored the motivation of adolescent Anglophone students of other languages across secondary school year groups with a particular interest in the impact of choice and curricular structure. Based on Self-Determination Theory, we developed a model that maintains that perceptions of autonomy support predict learners' sense of autonomy, in turn enhancings motivation. Through a survey of 1775 students aged 11-16, we tested whether this model holds for learners from different year groups, and in later years, across those in schools with and without mandatory language education. We found that all learners reported less autonomy frustration and were more likely to report a more autonomous form of language learning motivation if they perceived their language teacher as autonomy-supportive, but that as learners progressed through school perceptions of autonomy support declined. Further, we found that motivation was strongly associated with curriculum policies providing choice. These differences in motivational profiles across year group have implications for how teachers might support students' across different years and for programmatic adaptations that might facilitate students' learning.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in The Language Learning Journal is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
Keywords: | Self-determination; language learning; secondary education; motivation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Education |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 31 Jan 2025 12:38 |
Last Modified: | 31 Jan 2025 12:38 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/09571736.2024.2352576 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:222646 |
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Licence: CC-BY 4.0