"Motivational Changes and their Relationship to Academic Writing Development: A Longitudinal Study on a Sample of Cairo University Egyptian EFL Students

نوع المستند : المقالة الأصلية

المؤلف

Faculty of Arts, Cairo University

المستخلص

The aim of the present study is to examine the motivational changes of a sample consisting of 10 freshmen Egyptian EFL students over one academic year and to explore to what extent motivational changes predict L2 writing development. The ten students are of the same proficiency level (pre-intermediate to intermediate). They were enrolled in a class in the Department of English language and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University. This research is a longitudinal multiple-case study. A mixed (both qualitative and quantitative) non-experimental exploratory design is adopted. Students’ written essays were collected 11 times (twice a month) over one academic year (six months). The written essays were analyzed quantitatively in terms of fluency, accuracy, and complexity. Besides, a close-ended motivation questionnaire was administered 11 times (twice a month) over the academic year. Moreover, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted in the beginning and end of the academic year as a follow-up to support the quantitative findings of the motivation questionnaire. The results show that the ideal-L2-self is the students' stable strong motivator throughout the academic year. In addition to the ID, students turned out to be motivated by the Ought- to-L2 self by the end of the academic year. Attitudes towards the L2 experience proved not to be stable for 50% of the cases. The results suggest that motivational changes could predict the writing developmental paths of 70% only of the cases. 

الكلمات الرئيسية

ملفات

شارك

إرسال الاستشهاد إلى

الإحصائيات