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...

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Main Authors:	Rui Li, Rozina Raja, Azimah Sazalie
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2015
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/1/9148-27890-1-PB.pdf

id	ukm-9067
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-90672016-12-14T06:48:52Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/ The relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of Chinese EFL learners Rui Li, Rozina Raja, Azimah Sazalie, 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. Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2015 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/1/9148-27890-1-PB.pdf Rui Li, and Rozina Raja, and Azimah Sazalie, (2015) The relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of Chinese EFL learners. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 21 (3). pp. 41-55. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournal.ukm.my/3l
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	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.
format	Article
author	Rui Li, Rozina Raja, Azimah Sazalie,
spellingShingle	Rui Li, Rozina Raja, Azimah Sazalie, The relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of Chinese EFL learners
author_facet	Rui Li, Rozina Raja, Azimah Sazalie,
author_sort	Rui Li,
title	The relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of Chinese EFL learners
title_short	The relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of Chinese EFL learners
title_full	The relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of Chinese EFL learners
title_fullStr	The relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of Chinese EFL learners
title_full_unstemmed	The relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of Chinese EFL learners
title_sort	relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of chinese efl learners
publisher	Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM
publishDate	2015
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9067/1/9148-27890-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:53:56Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:53:56Z
_version_	1777406402713616384

The relationship between motivation and pragmatic awareness: a case study of Chinese EFL learners

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