The effects of parental education level and school location on language learning motivation

Abstract

Socio-economic status (SES) has been consistently shown to influence students' educational achievement, but to date, few studies have investigated the role of SES in language learning motivation. This study aims to examine to what extent two indicators of SES, school location and parents' education, affect motivation of Polish 15-year-olds to study English. The questionnaire, which included scales corresponding to Ford's (1992) Motivational Systems Theory, was completed by 599 participants. The results indicate that both school location and parents' education affect language learning motivation. Students from rural schools and those whose parents have a lower level of education tended to be less motivated than their peers from cities and those whose parents have higher levels of education. The differences concerned the goals the students adopted, their personal agency beliefs, emotional arousal processes, ideal L2 selves and selfregulation. This study highlights the need to raise teachers' awareness of the issue. From the methodological perspectives, it stresses the necessity to ensure sample representativeness in terms of students' SES when conducting research on affective factors in language learning and calls for more research involving participants from lower SES backgrounds.

Models and Theories of Second Language Motivation: English Language Teachers Respond

“…As global social inequality is growing and is perhaps “the most pressing issue of our time” (Collins & Bilge, 2016, p. 13), we cannot assume that all of our students will enter our classrooms equally motivated or that our effective classroom practices and strategies will motivate them all. Social inequality plays a crucial role in understanding or conceptualizing motivation in the English language classroom (Iwaniec, 2018; Kormos & Kiddle, 2013; Lamb, 2012; Lamb & Coleman, 2008). Using intersectionality as an analytic tool can help us understand the inequalities in our classrooms and how they might be interacting with learner motivation.…”

Exploring the Strategies of Raising Motivation among ESL students in a non-English speaking context

“…Parents can play a great role in facilitating or lowering their children's motivation (Butler, & Le, 2017). In particular, parents with a low level of formal education and a socio-economic status can significantly decrease intrinsic motivation to study a foreign language (Butler, & Le, 2017;Iwaniec, 2018). On the contrary, parents with university education usually have high expectations about their children's proficiency in English (Iwaniec, 2018).…”

“…Students from rural schools tend to have lower L2 motivation and language proficiency than their urban peers (Iwaniec, 2018;Kazantseva, Valiakhmetova, Minisheva, Anokhina, & Latypova, 2016). The possible reasons of that situation are insufficient self-efficacy beliefs and lower perception of English as useful and valuable for their future career (Iwaniec, 2018). The teaching strategy in this case should be aimed at eliminating those reasons.…”

“…For instance, ESL teachers can organize meetings with authority people with a similar background and demonstrate the example of successful English learning. Also, ESL instructors can explain the necessity and benefits of learning English (Iwaniec, 2018).…”

Meeting Diversity in Esl Classroom: A Pedagogical Model for a Globalized Milieu

“…2000), but a comparison of ESL students" expectations, especially those from diverse background, remains underexplored despite being an important factor in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Moreover, so far the researchers" focus has been on motivation in SLA (Dörnyei 2005;Iwaniec 2018;Lasagabaster 2011;Masgoret and Gardner 2003;Ngo, Spooner-Lane &Mergler 2017; Sugitaa& Takeuchi 2011; Tremblay, Gardner &Heipal2000), or on the expectations of students of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) programs (Bordia et. al.…”