2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Japanese Students' Changes in L2 Writing and Motivation over 3.5 Years
| Project/Area Number |
18520461
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
Foreign language education
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Nagoya Gakuin University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
SASAKI Miyuki Nagoya Gakuin University, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Professor (60241147)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
|
| Keywords | Japanese learners of English / quantitative approach / protocol data / longitudinal approac / expanded activity theory / sociocultural perspective / second language writing ability / 第2言語ライティング力 |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
The present study is a follow-up of Sasaki (2004) that heuristically examined the changes in Japanese EFL students'L2 writing behaviors over 3.5 years. In addition to testing hypotheses formulated on the basis of Sasaki's (2004) results, the present study examined the participants' changes in L2 writing motivation, employing Yang, Baba, and Cumming's (2004) research framework. Reflecting on the limitations of the cognitive-only approaches I employed for the past studies, I adopted a more sociocultural perspective (e.g., Thorne, 2005) for the present analysis. The results revealed that (1) the two factors of gaining L2 metaknowledge and L2writing practice were especially helpful for developing L2 writing ability; (2) only those students who spent some time abroad formed an L2-related imagined community that potentially motivated them to improve L2 writing ability; (3) only those students who spent more than four months abroad became motivated to write better in L2, imagining the writing classes they took abroad; (4) after external factors started to impede their studying L2 writing, students needed intrinsic motivation to continue to improve.
|
