Motivational Factors in Computer-administered Integrated Skills Tasks: A Study of Young Learners

Abstract

Previous studies examined the association between motivational characteristics and language learning achievement, but considerably less is known about young language learners' task-specific motivation in assessment contexts. Our study investigated the task motivation of young learners of English when completing computer-administered integrated test tasks, and the relationship between task performance and test task motivation. Hundred and four learners aged between 11 and 15 years completed three computer-administered assessment tasks: a Listen-Write task, which required a summary of a listening text, and two Listen-Speak tasks, in which learners had to retell a listening text with academic and non-academic content, respectively. Participants also filled in a task-motivation questionnaire, containing items on appraisals of task difficulty, task-related emotions and anxiety, effort and subjective competence. The results indicated that the young learners held positive views on the integrated assessment tasks. Nevertheless, they found the Listen-Speak tasks significantly more difficult, more anxiety-provoking and less enjoyable than the Listen-Write task and they judged their competence to be lower than in the Listen-Write task. Task-motivational factors accounted for a low level of variation in task performance. These findings have important implications for the design and use of computer-administered integrated tasks in assessing young L2 learners.

Preliminary design of an Initial Test of Integrated Skills within TRADILEX: an ongoing project on the validity of audiovisual translation tools in teaching English

“…Moreover, this ITIS is in line with a trend in language assessment that evaluates the examinees' abilities by integrating source reading or listening material into their writing and speaking performance in ways that simulate the cognitive, communication, and literacy demands of real-life academic or vocational tasks (Cumming, 2013). This ITIS attempts to offer a diagnostic report of the actual English level of the participants of the project, as well as enhance authentic language-use situations (Gebril, 2018;Plakans, 2021), as opposed to skills tested separately (Kormos, Brunfaut, & Michel, 2020).…”

Exploring which test-taker characteristics predict young L2 learners’ performance on listening and reading comprehension tests

“…Moreover, it is also possible that if all learners are highly motivated to complete a certain L2 task, the influence of motivational factors on task performance may become less apparent. For example, in Kormos et al’s (2020) study, in which 11-to-15-year-old, EFL learners engaged in computer-administered, integrated L2 listening-and-writing and listening-and-speaking tasks, the authors found that participants generally had a high level of task-related motivation. The authors attributed this to the low-stakes nature of the tasks, the design of the tasks, which catered to young learners’ interests and cognitive abilities, and the fact that their participants were given an incentive to demonstrate high effort during the tasks.…”

“…Zhang et al (2017) found that intrinsic motivation had a positive influence on 10th-grade, Chinese-L1, EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge. More recently, however, Kormos et al (2020) found no statistically significant correlations between task-specific motivation and 11-to-15-year-old, Hungarian-L1, EFL learners’ performance on computer-administered L2 tests which required listening to a text and either summarizing it in writing or retelling it orally.…”

Reflecting on assessing young foreign language learners

“…Moreover, we have seen efforts in more recent years to gain empirical data related to young EFL learners' developmental characteristics in relation to language assessments. Although there is a continued dearth of empirical evidence on YLs' characteristics, researchers and test developers have started to pay more attention to this topic (e.g., Cho & So, 2014;Habók & Magyar, 2019;Kormos et al, 2020). For example, Winke et al (2018) used stimulated-recall interviews to show children's experience in responding to the test tasks on an international English language proficiency test designed for young EFL learners.…”