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Second-Language Selves, Predictors, and L2 Learning Experience: An Explanatory Mixed-Method Study of Chinese STEM Students' English Learning Motivation

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Drawing upon the model of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), this explanatory mixed-method study examined STEM students’ future L2 selves as guiding their motivated experiences. It first proposed a validated structural equation model of 480 participants’ future L2 selves through a large-scale survey. The SEM model highlights the predictive power of attitudes, anxiety, family, and ethnocentrism towards Ideal and Ought-to L2 selves. The model also investigates the moderating effect of gender and first language on the predictive relationship. Then, the study explored the motivational trajectories of five selected survey respondents and how they negotiated their L2 selves across time. The findings fill in the gap of lacking empirical evidence of L2 learning experience/behaviors and predictors of L2 selves in L2MSS, which can provide important sociopolitical and pedagogical implications for enhancing students' learning motivation.

Source: Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

DOI: 10.59588/2961-3094.1143

Authors: Zhiqing Lin, Yue Zhang

Institutions: Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Education University of Hong Kong

Language: English

Topic: EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: Education University of Hong Kong