The relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of Chinese EFL learners
Motivation is assumed to play a crucial role in the acquisition of L2 pragmatics because it determines learners’ level of attention to the pragmatic information to be acquired, leading to more noticing or awareness of the target language features, and this awareness is necessary for converting inp...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM
2015
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/1/9148-27890-1-PB.pdf |
| Summary: | Motivation is assumed to play a crucial role in the acquisition of L2 pragmatics because it determines
learners’ level of attention to the pragmatic information to be acquired, leading to more noticing or
awareness of the target language features, and this awareness is necessary for converting input into
intake (Kasper and Schmidt 1996, Schmidt 1993). This study investigated the relationship between
motivation and pragmatic awareness among Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL).
The research data were collected from eighty-five Chinese university undergraduates majoring in
English who were asked to complete a motivation questionnaire and a multiple-choice discourse
completion test. Semi-structured interviews on learners’ judgment of language appropriateness and
their English learning activities outside class were also conducted. Findings revealed Chinese EFL
learners’ low level of pragmatic awareness and their difficulty in identifying the pragmatic force that
different strategies and linguistic forms convey in English. Motivation was found to be significantly
correlated with pragmatic awareness, and intrinsic interest was the most important contributor among
the motivation subscales investigated. Compared with less motivated learners, relatively highly
motivated learners were more concerned with the authentic L2 use and L2 culture when carrying out
learning activities outside class, and they exerted more effort to enhance the opportunities to use the
target language. These findings suggest that within the context of foreign/second language acquisition,
motivation should be given greater emphasis and learners’ attention to authentic L2 use and L2 culture
needs to be stimulated in the process of enhancing learners’ pragmatic awareness. |
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