The Motivation of L2 Learners: Does it decrease with age?

Abstract

This study investigated the motivation of a heterogeneous group of students studying English as a foreign language at the International School in Tripoli area. The aim of the study was to find out the extent to which various factors affect students' motivation and achievement in second/foreign language learning particularly as they enter the senior high school. The research also looked into the temporal dimension of L2 motivation to see if the students' motivation changes as they enter the senior high school. One hundred and forty four students from thirty five nationalities learning English and five teachers participated in the completion of the questionnaire surveys. Twenty students and three teachers took part in the semi-structured interviews. Data were drawn from students' examination results and a combined quantitative-qualitative approach in which student and teacher questionnaire surveys were followed by a round of student and teacher interviews. The results of the 'Student's Motivation Questionnaire' show that L2 motivation in the sample decreases with age: The results of one-way analyses of variance across the five age groups investigated show that the older learners tend to score significantly lower on the motivational scales and the interviews data gives further support to this finding. There are a number of influential factors that affect learners' motivation: in particular the role of the teacher was seen fundamental in determining the attitude to the language and in supplying motivation. Other external factors include aspects related to the learning context.

Attitude and Motivation of Students Towards Learning English as Second Language in a Secondary School in Penang

“…The research also highlighted that the motivational level reduces due to lack of required context and due to lack of exposure to native-English speaking people (Ghenggesh, 2010).…”

“…Ghenghesh carried out a research in Tripoli areas International school where students learn English as second language to assess the factors, which influence the motivational level of the students towards learning the language (Ghenggesh, 2010). The research has a mixed research approach wherein the interviews of teachers were carried out and students were surveyed.…”

Motivation and Vocabulary Breadth in CLIL and EFL Contexts. Different age, Same Time of Exposure

“…Many studies point to a decrease of motivation with age (Chambers 1999;Williams, Burden and Lanvers 2002;Cenoz 2003;Ghenghesh 2010). Tragant (2006) found that secondary education students were more motivated than primary education students, but this tendency stops somewhere in upper secondary education.…”

English for University Administrative Work: English Officialization Policy and Foreign Language Learning Motivation

“…As suggested by many L2 researchers, L2 motivation, a major learner factor, is signifiantly influenced by social and contextual factors (Dörnyei, 2001;Ghenghesh, 2010;Long, Ming, & Chen, 2013;Kim, 2010;Kormos, Kiddle, & Csizér, 2011;Noels, Pelletier, & Vallerand, 2000;Vandergrift, 2005;Zhao, 2012). Regarding the close interaction between an external context and L2 learners' internal responses to the context, Ryan (1985, 1995) proposed self-determination theory which explicates two main motivational orientations: intrinsic and extrinsic ones.…”

“…Learners may also be extrinsically motivated to learn a language because of some potential rewards that can be gained by developing language competence. L2 researchers have applied this self-determination theory to different contexts under a variety of social influences and have revealed that an L2 learner's response to the context forms a certain motivational orientation, which is significantly related with learner autonomy (Dörnyei, 2001;Ghenghesh, 2010;Long, Ming, & Chen, 2013;Kormos, Kiddle, & Csizér, 2011;Noels et al, 2000;Vandergrift, 2005).…”