EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION AND PROFICIENCY A LATENT PROFILING APPROACH

• Published in: Studies in second language acquisition Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 967 - 997
• Main Authors: Dunn, Karen, Iwaniec, Janina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Cambridge University Press 01.09.2022
• Subjects: English (Second Language); English as a second language learning; English language learners; English proficiency; Foreign Countries; High School Students; Language Proficiency; Language Skills; Language Tests; Motivation; Second Language Learning; Secondary school students; Student Motivation; Spain
• ISSN: 0272-2631; 1470-1545
• DOI: 10.1017/S0272263121000759

A foundation of second language motivational theory has been that motivation contributes to explaining variance in language learning proficiency; however, empirical findings have been mixed. This article presents an innovative approach to exploring L2 proficiency and motivations of teenage English language learners in Madrid, Spain (N = 1773). Participants completed a multiskill English language test, plus an eight-scale questionnaire operationalizing constructs from Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2005). Data were analysed using Latent Variable Mixture Modeling, a person-centered profiling approach. Results indicated five distinct classes of students, characterized by differing motivation-proficiency profiles. The importance of this study is that the analysis does not assume a homogenous relationship between motivational traits and proficiency levels across the learner sample; whilst there is undoubtedly a connection between the two areas, it is not a straightforward correlation, explaining to some extent discrepancies in previous findings and laying groundwork for further, more nuanced, investigation.