Understanding Taiwanese Adolescents’ English Learning Selves through Parental Expectations

Abstract

This paper explores the interplay of Taiwanese adolescent English learners' motivational selves and their parents' expectations, with a special focus the identified perceptions of both teenage leaners and their parents towards English learning as a duty and obligation. Using the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS, Dörnyei, 2009), the qualitative study foregrounds the cultural and relational aspects of the self system in understanding language learning motivation. Results from semi-structured interviews suggest that parental expectations of children's English learning exhibit a duality characterized by the hope that their children will become successful members of the globalized world and a belief that English learning is a basic responsibility for their children. Adolescent language learners' and their parents' actual selves, including their identification with societal roles and social obligations, mediate between parents' investments in their children's English education and teenage learners' perceived obligations to meet parental expectations. The paper concludes by suggesting further research on parental expectations and the development of global selves, and on the synergized effect of language learners' actual selves and future self-guides in motivating language learning.Keywords: EFL, L2 Motivational Self System, obligations, parents, adolescents IntroductionOver the past decade, research into second language (L2) motivation has focused its inquiries on language learners' self-concepts in order to understand motivational dispositions (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015;Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011). Studies based on the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS, Dörnyei, 2009), for example, have investigated learners' relationships with their imagined future selves, discrepancies between future and current selves, and the generation of motivation. The fundamental hypothesis of the L2MSS is that language learners' imagined future selves, together with their L2-related visions, energize their learning behaviors. More specifically, if an individual wants to interact confidently with international others, the identity of a fluent L2 user can act as a powerful motivator to reduce the gap between their here-and-now present-self state and their ideal end state.In a Confucian-influenced society such as Taiwan, language learners' motivation to learn English is further complicated by pressure to honor one's family and show filial piety (Chen, Warden, & Chang, 2005;Warden & Lin, 2000). Recognizing the importance of English proficiency to educational success and social mobility, parents in Taiwan allocate a significant portion of household expenditure to their children's English learning. The formation or development of Taiwanese teenage learners' identities in learning English, therefore, may be simultaneously influenced by the self-images they hold in imagined Hung-Tzu HuamgThe Journal of Asia TEFL Vol. 14, No. 2, Summer 2017, 244-261 245 future contexts and the culturally endorsed values of studying English as a duty and obligation to th...