English Learning Motivation for Ethnic Chinese Students in Hong Kong and Sydney

KAM06214

English Learning Motivation for
Ethnic Chinese Students in Hong Kong and Sydney

Chi-keung Michael Kam
Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Macau SAR, China
email address: ckkam@dsej.gov.mo

Abstract
Second language acquisition has social and psychological perspectives. The success of
second-language learning depends very much on how a learner is motivated to learn the
second language. Motivation is the central element in Gardner's Socio-Educational
Model (Gardner, 1985). Factor analysis illustrated four major constructs: Integrativeness,
Attitudes toward the Learning Situation, Motivation, and French-Language Anxiety
(Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993). Intergrativeness was considered as the most important
factor in explaining the language learning motivation (Csizér, Dörnyei, 2005). Language
learning is culturally based, and people speaking the same language would quickly
identify themselves from people speaking other languages. It is assumed in Gardner's
model that if a learner identifies him/herself as a member of the second language group,
he/she would have higher motivation to learn the language. In the language-learning
context, the attitudes toward language situation, and the anxiety perceived in language
class and language use environments affect the learner’s persistence in language learning.
The present paper tries to identify factors pertinent to the learning of English as a second
language in Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia. Path modelling will be used to determine
the relative contribution of English language motivation, language anxiety and Attitudes
toward English learning.

Keywords: Multicultural education
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English Learning Motivation for
Ethnic Chinese Students in Hong Kong and Sydney

Chi-keung Michael Kam
Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Macau SAR, China

Introduction

Many of the current theories of second language motivation come from the early
work of Gardner and Lambert (1959). They are the first to make a distinction between
integrative motivation and instrumental motivation and this has a tremendous influence
on virtually all second language related research in this area. Other researchers such as
Krashen, Giles and Brynes, Clément, and Allard and Landry have attacked the problem
from different perspectives. The studies of bilingualism or multilingualism in Canada,
USA, Australia and Hong Kong will shed light on the future development of language
policies and practices in the fast growing globalisation in the areas of trade, and the
migration of people between countries. The political borders in context such as the
European Union (EU) is increasingly being broken down to facilitate cross-over points in
order to enhance trade and travel between states (Smolicz, Hudson & Secombe, 1998;
Ushioda, 2006). The intercultural contact and sharing will initiate language attitudes and
language learning motivation (Dörnyei & Csizér, 2005)


Integrative motivation and the acquisition of second language


Gardner's (1983) socio-educational model emphasises integrative and instrumental
aspects of motivation, attitudes toward learning situations, anxiety in learning a second
language and language aptitude in determining language performance. Psychological
variables affect motive to learn, to use and retain second language. Integrativeness is a
key concept in Gardner’s model that reflects a positive outlook on second language and
its culture, to the extent that learners with high scores on this factor may want to integrate
themselves into the second language culture and become as part of the second language
speakers. Instrumentality refers to pragmatic benefits of second language proficiency and
the speakers’ perception on the usefulness of the second language. However, Dörnyei
(2002) concluded that the traditional instrumental does not really reflect the utilitarian
dimension in using English in Hungarian context. Csizér & Dörnyei (2002) accounted
this phenomenon to the learning of English, apart from pragmatic goals of getting a job or
a place in higher education, it can be from a range of other incentives such as travelling,
making foreign friends, understanding the lyrics of English songs. In turn,
integrativeness is viewed as the association with one’s ideal self in the mastery of a
second language. This ideal language self is a cognitive representation of all incentives
associated with second language mastery, and is also linked to professional competence.
Csizér & Dörnyei (2002) extended the concept of integrativeness further to explain the
motivational set-up in different learning contexts, even there is little or not direct contact
with second language speakers.


Krashen's (1981) monitor model postulates that attitudes and motivation play a
largely filtering role in influencing the extent to which second-language material is
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satisfactorily input. Krashen (1981) proposed that language aptitude relates more to
conscious language learning, attitudes, motivation, self-confidence and anxiety in
subconscious language acquisition. Gardner's socio-educational model considers
motivation and attitudes to be important because they influence how active the individual
will be in learning the second language. In Krashen's monitor model, motivation is seen
as a component of the passsive-cognitive filter that screens incoming language based on
the learner's motives, needs, attitudes and emotional states.


Clément's (1980) social context model introduces psycholinguistic vitality, a social
variable, to account for second-language achievement. The perceived status of the
language determines whether a student will assimilate or integrate with the target
language group. Giles and Byrnes's (1982) inter-group model applies social identity
theory and considers the process of language acquisition as involving the crossing of
group membership boundaries. According to Gardner (1985), the central concept of
inter-group model is self-concept and the motivating force is to develop or maintain
positive self-image. As remarked by Dörnyei and Csizér (2005), the intergroup model
contributes a situated social psychological framework for minority ethnic group members
in a multicultural setting to acquire and use of dominant language. With respect to
English as a lingua franca for communication between speakers of different language
backgrounds, Yashima (2002) extended the concept of integrativeness to refer
generalised international attitudes to the international community as large, postulates a
concept of ‘international posture’ in English language motivation. The reference group is
widened to include non-specific global community of English speaker users.
Communicating in English in Japan is seen representing a world around Japan and
connecting to foreign countries and foreigners (Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide & Shimizu,
2004). Ushioda (2006) saw that the non-specific global community can be viewed as part
of an internal representation of oneself, and this internal domain of self and identity shifts
the thinking of integrative motivation. Political dimension of language learning
motivation relates to language choice and also the processes of engagement with
language learning, language use and social interaction with second language speakers.


Motivation and the acquisition of second language


Motivation and orientation are different in context. Gardner (1985) stated that
motivation to learn a second language is influenced by group related and context related
attitudes, integrativeness and attitudes toward the learning situation respectively.
Gardner (1985), and Gardner and Lambert (1972) emphasised that if orientation is not
linked with heightened motivation to learn the second language, it refers only to reasons
for studying a second language and is not energised to direct and reinforce effort to learn
the language. Gardner and MacIntyre (1991) stated that integratively motivated students
are more active in language classes, are more likely to participate in excursions to other
cultural communities when given the opportunity and more likely to interact with
members of that community when there, and are less likely to drop out of language study
in subsequent years. Scarcella and Oxford (1992) suggested that highly motivated
learners interact confidently with native speakers of the language, which in return
increases the amount of input that learners receive. Motivation often leads learners to use
a variety of learning strategies that can help develop greater language-learning skills.
Motivation encourages greater overall effort and results in greater success in terms of
language proficiency and achievement (Gardner 1985). Students who are more
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motivated develop stronger overall second language proficiency. Strong motivation
helps learners maintain their language skills after classroom instruction is over (Gardner,
Lalonde, Moorcroft & Evers 1987).


Gardner's (1983) socio-educational model proposes that second language acquisition
should be considered within the social milieu in which it takes place and hypothesises
that the cultural beliefs within this milieu could influence the development of two sets of
attitudinal variables relevant to language acquisition: integrativeness and attitudes toward
the learning situation. Csizér & Dörnyei (2005) noted that the milieu as defined by
Gardner and others usually refers to the social influences from immediate environment
including the perceived influence of significant others, such as parents, family, friends
and socialisation effect of the learners’ peer group.


Gardner’s model also proposes that two variables, motivation and language aptitude,
interact with the second-language acquisition context to promote second-language
proficiency. In formal language acquisition context, for example in the school classroom,
both motivation and language aptitude are expected to play a role. Motivation is
expected to play a more dominant role than aptitude in informal acquisition, because it is
assumed that motivation levels will determine whether or not students make themselves
available to such informal opportunities to learn the language. Once the student enters
informal activities, language aptitude should become influential. Motivational factors
will continue to dominate because they determine whether or not the student would take
advantage of these contexts.


Anxiety and Acquisition of Second Language


Anxiety is a state of being uneasy, apprehensive, or worried about what will happen,
being concerned about a possible future event (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope 1986). The
kind of anxiety seen in the second language classroom is usually situational rather than
being associated with trait anxiety. There are two kinds of anxiety, facilitating
anxiety -- useful in keeping students alert and debilitating anxiety, which harms a second-
language learners' performance directly by reducing participation and creating over-
avoidance of the language and, indirectly, through worry and self-doubt (Horwitz, 1990).
In the research by Spielmann and Radnofsky (2001), they found that anxiety has a
detrimental effect on language acquisition. Anxiety can also arise from culture shock
(Adler, 1987). Second-language learners who are living in the target culture frequently
experience culture shock, at least initially. Gardner and MacIntyre (1991) found that
French use anxiety was significantly negative related to achievement in their initial trial.
As trials progressed, anxiety about the use of French became less relevant. Gardner and
MacIntyre (1993) suggested that students with high levels of language anxiety might be
expected to become more anxious when doing a test and perform poorly as a result. They
believed that if language anxiety continues to rise, it will have a permanent and
potentially adverse effect on second language learner’s acquisition and performance.


In determining the relationship between anxiety and language learning, MacIntyre
and Gardner (1989) correlated eleven anxiety scales with the production of French
vocabulary after the learning phase and found that French class anxiety correlates
significantly negatively with the number correct over all five trials, while French use
anxiety correlates significantly negatively with the number correct for the first three trials
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in the study. This indicates that the higher the anxiety level of students the lower their
second-language performance. There are many research studies in different areas of
anxiety, such as fear of speaking in public, oral performance in class, writing
apprehension (Aida, 1994; Chang, 1996; Cheng, 2002; Young, 1991).


Purpose of the study


This study tries to identify the factors affecting the second language acquisition and
their relative contribution to the determination of language learning outcomes. The
variables used in this study are:
? Milieu is the social environment where the learners exposed and has a great influence
in their second language learning
? Integrativeness is a desire to learn the second language in order to integrate with the
target culture
? Motivation is an exploration of the energisation and direction of behaviour
? Language anxiety is a state of apprehension and a vague, undefined fear
? Attitudes toward second language situation
? Goal setting is the combination of parental goal and student’s goal in educational
attainment
? Language achievement is measured by a self-reported items on the achievement in
reading, listening, speaking and writing in second language


Method

Participants


Participants were drawn 247 students attending week-end Chinese schools in Sydney.
Among them, 133 were immigrants from Hong Kong (61 males, 71 females, 1 missing
gender data). They were 9 to 16 years attending school with grades 4 to 10. The sample
size for Hong Kong counterparts was chosen to be five times the size in Sydney. 628
students were drawn from 17 classes; 10 classes from primary school and 7 classes from
secondary schools.

Instrument


The questionnaire was adapted from Gardner’s Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery
(AMTB). It consisted of 65 items, using 5-point rating scale assessing participants’
attitudes on motivation. The items were piloted to 71 ethnic Chinese attending week-end
Chinese schools in Sydney (different sample from the main study) to evaluate the item
reliability and ascertain the items were pertinent to the desired constructs. After factor
analysis the scales were redefined. Together with other perception items noting the
language spoken at home, expected English grade, and self and parental educational goal.
The values used in the study are as follows:

People – attitudes toward English speaking people
Orient – integrative and instrumental orientation to English learning
Flang – interest in learning foreign language
Rolearne – take initiative and active role in the learning of English
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Atlearne – attitudes toward the learning of English
Clsx – classroom anxiety in the learning of English
Usex – use anxiety in the learning of English
Teac – evaluation of English teachers
Cou – evaluation of English course
Parent – parental educational goal
Self – self educational goal
Expgrade – Expected grade of English performance


Participants were also required to attempt short tests in Chinese and English, the
performances were captured as Chinese and English scores.


The proposed model in the current study is presented in Figure 1, depicting the
relationship between latent variables home language (HLANG), integrativeness (INT),
motivation (MOT), anxiety (ANX), attitudes toward the learning situation (ALS), goals
setting (GOAL), and language proficiency (PROF). The achievement (ACH) was
measured by the expected grade.


FIGURE 1 The proposed casual model for the second language (English) acquisition

?4
?2
?1 ?3 ?5 ?6




ROLE ARNE

OR IENT



ATLEARNE
EXPGRADE




PEOPLE


FLA

NG





























HLANG
INT

MOT

ACH

?1


?1


?2

?3



































HMLA
NG

























PROF


?1

ANX

ALS
GOAL
?5

?2


?3
?4




























PARENT
SELF



CLS
X

U
SEX






















?7
TEAC
ENG
CHIN
?2
?3
COU
?6




?4
?

9
?5
?8


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Procedure

Each participant was asked to complete a questionnaire consisting of 65 items together
with a self-perception rating of English performance in four domains, namely, reading,
writing, listening and speaking. After collection of the questionnaires, participants were
asked to attempt English and Chinese papers to assess their language proficiency. The
papers were adapted from the Hong Kong Attainment Test on English and Chinese.
They were validated assessment instruments gauging the students’ language proficiency.

Analyses



The opinion data from questionnaires were subjected to factor analysed using SPSS
package (version 11.5) with Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) to determine the factor
structures, followed by confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL package (Jöreskog &
Sörbom, version 8.51 released in October, 2001, to ascertain the scales for latent
variables. As Marsh, Balla & McDonald (1988) suggested that goodness of fit indices
are affected by sample size, large sample makes it too sensitive to detect significant
differences among data and indicate poor fit. The sample size of this study is 93,
choosing suitable fit indices becomes the main concern. Non-Normed fit index (NNFI),
comparative fit index (CFI) and incremental fit index (IFI) are relatively unaffected by
the sample size. Chi square and root mean square residual (RMR) are commonly used to
assess whether given theoretical model will fit the data. They were then subjected to full
model of path analysis to determine their relationships.


Results


After the initial model was submitted to evaluation using maximum-likelihood
estimation, the model provided a relative fit to the data concerned. The model fit indices
are CFI=0.78. The relationship between goals and motivation was not significant. Table
1 shows various goodness-fit measures for the model. The path coefficients for the
model were presented in Figure 2.

TABLE 1
Some Fit Measures for the Final model
________________________________
Chi-squres / df ratio
0.22
NEI
0.69
NNFI
0.70
CFI
0.78
IFI
0.80
GFI
0.82
RMR
0.11
________________________________
NFI=Normed Fit Indes
NNFI=Non-Normed Fit Index
CFI=Comparative Fit Index
IFI=Incremental Fit Index
GFI=Goodness of Fit Index
RMR=Root Mean Square Residual
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FIGURE 2 The schematic representation of the final model for the second language
(English) acquisition with the standardized estimates of the Latent Variables.

?4
?2
?1 ?3 ?5 ?6




ROLE ARNE

OR IENT



ATLEARNE
EXPGRADE




PEOPLE


FLA

NG






0.64 0.78

0.12








0.62
0.95
1.0





-0.71
INT

HLANG

-0.44
MOT
0.47
ACH

?1


?1


?2

?3



0.14



























-1.19
-0.25
0.06
-0.21


HMLA
NG

























PROF


?1

ANX

ALS
GOAL
?5

?2


?3
?4



1.0




0.90
0.55




0.71










0.81
-0.08



PARENT
SELF



CLS
X

U
SEX






















?7
TEAC
ENG
CHIN
?2
?3
COU
?6




?4
?

9
?5
?8

Coefficients for Chinese and English papers are respectively 0.11 and 0.18.


Discussion



There is high relationship between motivation and achievement, path coefficient is
0.47, that confirms previous researchers’ findings that high motivation is an antecedent
necessary condition for students to learn second language and will produce high
achievement. The integrative motivational attitudes are highly influential (-0.44) on their
motivation. They need to have respective attitudes before they take action and spend
effort in their language learning.


The measuring instruments are fairly useful in determining the latent variables in the
model. High contribution from items measuring attitudes toward English speaking
people (PEOPLE, 0.64), orientation to English learning (ORIENT, 0.78), Interest in
leaning foreign language (FLANG, 0.62), attitudes toward the learning of English
(ATLEARNE, 0.95), classroom anxiety in the learning of English (CLSX, 1.00), use
anxiety in the learning of English (USEX, 0.71), evaluation of English course (COU,
0.81), parental education goal (PARENT, 0.90), and self educational goal (SELF, 0.55).
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The model indicates that the latent variable goal setting (GOAL) was not significant
in determining the students’ motivation in their English learning. Also the proficiency of
students’ English and Chinese indicate negative relationship with the expected
achievement (-0.21).


In the study, although much work has to be done to partial out unrelated elements in
the final model, at least we understand that integrative orientation, anxiety in second
language learning and attitudes toward the language courses are important in shaping
students’ motivation which lean their effort to learn and energise them to sustain the
learning process of second language learning.

Limitation of the study


The study presented here is part of the large scale exploration of ethnic Chinese
students learning English in two different settings: predominant Cantonese environment
in Hong Kong and full of inducement of English environment in the metropolitan city of
Sydney, Australia. The participants were drawn from those attending week-end Chinese
schools which might not be representative of all Chinese students in Sydney. A second
factor in the study was the selection of antecedent variables to the motivation, some of
which measured the attitudes toward foreign language rather than second language. A
third factor is the fit indices of the final model ranged from 0.69 to 0.82, which are far
from satisfactory. The present study represents an initial attempt to describe the
relationship between the motivational attitudes and the second language learning for
ethnic Chinese students in Sydney. A final limitation of the study is the issue of self-
reported questionnaire surveys employed in this study. Although much effort had been
expended to identify those items which were systematically varied and obvious
regularities, some might escape from our detection. The data were drawn from two sets
of information: questionnaire survey and the performance of English and Chinese in
separate papers. Matching these two sets of information incurred loss of subjects in the
path modelling. The number of participants’ data used in the study of path modelling
was 93, which is about 70% of total 133 participants in the Sydney sample.

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