Motivation and Lived Experience in an English Language Study Abroad Program: Implications for Second

Language Acquisition

Mei Ling Sutherland

School of Cultural and Language Studies in Education

Queensland University of Technology

mlc1407b@yahoo.com

Presentation Outline

Background

Research Interest

Theoretical Model

Research Design

Some of the findings

Two contrastive cases

Conclusion

Research in the SA Context Research in the SA from American and

Europe context, not much emphasis on ELT teacher training

Research in SA focused on 4 areas: 1. Measuring of language gains

(Brecht, Davidson and ginsberg, 1995) 2. Comparative studies of language between abroad and at home (Lafford, 1995; Freed 1995; Freed, So and Lazar 1999) 3. Acquisition of sociolinguistic competence (Marriott, Siegal and Regun 1995; Murdoch and Adamson 2001) 4. Investigate on learners’ perspective and cultural awareness (Brecht and Robinson 1995, Polyani 1995, Miller and Ginsberg 1995, Evans et al 2001)

Research Interest

Key element of investigation is the quality of experience

Csikszentmihalyi (1990, 1996), success comes through engagement with interactions in the TL

Falvey (1998), little genuine exposure to English outside of the EFL classroom

Motivation

Personal element

Personal

Characteristic+

Background

Components on English Language Enhancement

ELT Teacher Training Programat

Higher Institutions in Hong Kong

Situational Influence

General Components in Study Abroad Programs

Home-stay

TeachingMethodology

Exposure to Australian educational

system

English Enhancement

Institutionalbased

program

Free Time

Language Acquisition

Intention of the research

Pre-service teachers experience in SA perceptions of the effectiveness of the SA

Research questions: Self-report data on To what extent do learners see a SA program has impact on their motivation? How do learners see their communication competence developing overtime as a result of the program? How do home-stay(HS) family perceive themselves as a home-stay provider and how do they perceive learners’ progression in their learning?

Theoretical Concept

Situational Factors Subject area Teaching method Course structure Time on task

Personal Factors Prior knowledgeAbilityMotives

Learning Focused Approaches in learning

Learning Outcomes Quantitative measuresQualitative: learning experience, motivation, higher order thinking, personal growth and sense of community

  PRESAGE PROCESS PRODUCT

Biggs’s 3P Model of Learning and Teaching

Research Participants

BEd students – H.K.U.End of 2nd year of studyStudy abroad experience only in Australia

Research Design and Procedure

PRE ACTUAL POST

JOURNAL

ENTRIESSEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW including Homestay family

LEARNING BIOGRAPHY

FOCUS GROUP STUDY – THREE MONTHS AFTER RETURN

MOTIVATIONAL INTENSITY QUESTIONNAIRE (MIQ)

Motivational Intensity Questionnaire (MIQ) (Gardner’s 1985 research)

Motivational Intensity : designed to measure the intensity of a student’s motivation to learn English in terms of work done for classroom assignments, future plans to make use of and study the language etc. Measure consists of 9 mc items. A high score represents a student’s self report of a high degree of effort being spent in acquiring the language.

Desire to learn English: Eleven multiple choice items (max. score =33) in this scale with a high score expressing a strong desire to learn English.

Findings and Discussions

Motivational Intensity

05

10152025303540

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8

Before

During

After

Desire to Learn English

05

101520

2530

3540

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8

Before

During

After

Two Contrastive Cases

Motivational Intensity

0369

121518212427

Before During After

P1

P2

Desire to Learn English

0369

1215182124273033

Before During After

P1

P2

Result from Qualitative MeasuresPersonal Biography Comparison

Factors Participant 1 Participant 2 

Start learning English Kindergarten (3 years old) Kindergarten (3 years old) 

English learning experiences before SA

In schools and exposure to native English speaking environment in summer camps. She was mad about American pop music groups and started to read foreign ‘idol’ magazines. Influenced by English teacher and felt the thirst for English learning, and started to pick up English reading as hobby.

In schools and restricted to syllabus. In University, after class I also read English newspaper, stories and watched English TV channels e.g., CNN

Reasons for English improvement

English is my favourite subject and I would like to be good at something I enjoyed and liked.

Would like to be an English teacher. External pressure and extremely considers how other people think about his level of English.

Motives To be part of the English language community and understand more about other cultures

Pass the benchmark testBe a competent teacher

Expectation of SA To experience Australian culture and to re-boost daily English speaking skills

Improve English oral proficiency significantly and be a independent person

Factors Analysis on P1 and P2Personal Factors

“be optimistic towards what coming next all the time”.

“I worry about appropriacy of my question to HS family”.

“I have abundant vocabulary but don’t know how to use them”

Participant One

HS family: “a confident, out spoken, patient, willing to offer help and a worldly person, and she speaks English very well”.Participant two

HS family:“polite, well-spoken, well-mannered person and quieter than the other students we have met”.

Situational FactorsP1 : “The relationship with the HS family have built up a lot of chance for me to speak English. So in a sense it is a good opportunity for me to practice more when I compare to the environment in Hong Kong”.

HS family:

says “the most positive outcome for me to provide the Homestay experience for the student is the work in the different cultures. It is just the new difference. That’s what I get out of it”.

“In Hong Kong, at University we expect the same level of language and the only input of vocabulary is through text books. When you come to a new environment, like the immersion in the SA, your horizon tends to broaden because it is stimulating”.

Participant two

“I don’t think I have many opportunities to use English here, in which I mean speaking in English. I will use English when I return home. However, my HS family are quite busy. Apart from work they also have part-time study. So I don’t want to bother them as they were quite exhausted when they returned home.”

HS family: “Well, I guess I just try to make him as part of the family”. “I think, the homestay experience has been part of the different families. It is an important part of students’ learning. That’s how you really learn, how other people live isn’t it? See what they eat when they get up, what they do each day. That’s got to be a pretty amazing experience”.

Approaches in LearningParticipant One

“In Australia all I have to focus on is the program and try to get along well with the HS family. Comparatively there is more

interaction within a household than I have had in H.K”.

“When I communicate with my HS family, I deliberately make some silly topic. It works at least you are talking something and you are happy not to let time to slip away”.

“at the beginning of the immersion, I felt that it is my responsibility not to allow the conversation to stop”. I have tried to get along with the HS family and I felt at ease to communicate or initiate conversation with HS”.

“all my roommates shouted bad words in Cantonese at him. And he replied “oops”! I am the only person who had spoken English in that situation. I went down to the counter and voiced about this in the morning. Opportunity to speak English is everywhere. It is a matter of your choice. Even though I went out with my Cantonese-speaking group. If you are really determined to use English you will still be able to find the chance to practice it”.

“so I think just the study abroad program by itself is not enough. You have to get yourself outside the classroom environment. Explore more and you may encounter some experience that you can use in your language”.

 

“In the immersion program, like you were placed in a different environment, you met different people, you have stimulation and then you experience more, that is practice of learning the second language”.

Learning approachesparticipant two

“we initiated conversation with him more than he did. We tried to involve him in all conversation and sometimes I don’t know whether, may be he doesn’t understand or doesn’t know, and he doesn’t keep it going”.

“His English is very good but he tends to look like he really thinks about what he is trying to say”.“He probably just doesn’t initiate conversation with us”. “I think he could be more involved and I feel he does spend a lot of time in his room”.

“you know something exciting that he is doing and I think he will come home and tell us”. “but I just don’t think that he feels as comfortable as I would like. Just because he doesn’t, um…, give us things freely”. “I don’t think he is making the best use of this time”. “I think he needs to open up himself”.

P1:“I am glad that my HS family are more friends than parents to me. Seriously, I never had this kind of conversation with my biological parents. I enjoyed my time with my HS parents and it is lots of fun”.

P1 HS: “We don’t talk about anything with substance. We don’t talk seriously about anything. I wouldn’t say I know her a lot better compared from the 1st week to the seven weeks now.

P1 HS:“we actually see less of her when time goes on I suspect. The thing is disappointing about (sigh …….) the homestay that I found. This is just my personal opinion. If I had the chance to go to a Homestay in another country. I tried to stay with people of that culture to learn more. However I found that this would not occur with these students. They still were very young to understand that. What they do is they will conglomerate together because they all know each other from school.”

Participant one Three months after the study abroad

P2 : ‘I do not mind whether I have to speak to my homestay family a lot. I think what is important is that they really want to talk with me because to give me the opportunity to use English’.“I don’t have the opportunities to interact with local Australian or Australian students and this is what I missed the most in the study abroad program”.

P1: ‘Although I did not put much extra effort into the learning. The immersion program raised my awareness. I am aware that I have to put in extra effort but I did not put in any action yet. Maybe I need to have a bit more time’.

Participant two

Participants’ perception of the learning environment appears to influence their behaviour.

This perception seems to be influenced by individual differences such as personal characteristics, openness, flexibility and socializing skills in an immersion context.

Conclusion