PASSION & PERSISTENCE: A STUDY OF MOTIVATION AMONG LEARNERS OF JAPANESE IN AUSTRALIA Barbara M. Northwood A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Japanese Studies School of International Studies Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University of New South Wales, Sydney September 2013 Originality Statement ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own word, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ …………………………………………………. 31 March 2013 ii List of publications Northwood, B. and Thomson, C.K. 2010. “Why stop studying Japanese? A case in Australia.” In A.M. Stoke (Ed.), JALT2009 Conference Procedings. Tokyo: JALT. (Written about initial findings in the high school study, Chapter 4). Northwood, B. and Thomson, C.K. 2012. “What Keeps Them Going? Investigating Ongoing Learners of Japanese in Australian Universities.” Japanese Studies, 32(3): 335-355. London, U.K.: Routledge. (Written about findings from Round I of the University study, including Interviews 1 and 2). Northwood, B.M., 2012. “Persistence and Learning Japanese.” In N. Sonda & A. Krause (Eds.), JALT2012 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT. (Discusses the predominant factors that influenced intention to continue among both university and high school study participants). iii Abstract There are large numbers of learners of Japanese in Australia, but few learners reach an advanced level of the language. The fundamental question underlying the study was: what keeps some learners going to reach an advanced level of Japanese, when so many do not continue? Motivation and attitudes play an important role in persistence according to previous L2 research, consequently, this Australian study of over 600 learners of Japanese used Gardner’s AMTB to measure motivation/attitudes. The data from both school and university learners of Japanese was supported by interviews that explored issues in support of the quantitative research methods. Results based on Gardner’s AMTB indicated that those who intended to continue, the stay-ins, showed much higher levels of motivational desire, motivational effort, and more positive attitudes towards learning Japanese than those who intended to dropout. This suggested that the stay-ins were more passionate about learning Japanese (along with being more persistent), indicated by the proposed compatibility of definitions of motivation (Gardner, 1985) and passion (Vallerand, 2003). Stay-ins also showed higher levels of Integrativeness compared to drop-outs although some sub-components showed higher levels than others. However, the magnitude of differences between stay-ins and drop-outs was lower for the measure of motivational intensity compared to the measures of motivational desire and attitudes towards learning Japanese. This was attributed partly to the measure of motivational intensity, which did not take into account the popularity of J-pop activities amongst participants. It was also attributed to learners not identifying J-pop activities as learning activities or as being effortful, according to surveys and interviews. Rather, effort seemed ‘effortless’, which was explained by the concept of flow, the optimal experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Major conclusions: A growing sense of self-identity as speakers of Japanese was evident among advanced learners; Passion and persistence differentiated the stay-ins from the drop-outs; The passion for an activity itself may be the driving force in Motivation, not effort, since participants did not identify J-pop activities as ‘learning’ or ‘effortful’. Rather, the effort seemed ‘effortless’, which indicated almost an ironical reversal of the effort component of Motivation in Gardner’s SE model. iv Acknowledgements I would sincerely like to thank my supervisor Dr Chihiro Thomson and my co- supervisor, Dr. Sumiko Iida, for their valuable suggestions and advice. I would also like to particularly express my appreciation to Dr Thomson for her help and encouragement in this project. This research was conducted under funding generously provided by the Australian Research Council and The Japan Foundation, Sydney, for which I am most grateful. [ARC Linkage Project Grant LP0776318. Project Title: Tackling the issues of low numbers of Australia’s advanced users of Japanese: Reasons and Strategies. Chief Investigator: C.K. Thomson] I would also like to especially thank Dr Robyn Spence-Brown, and Dr Deryn Verity who generously gave up their time to offer insightful suggestions, and Prof. Peter Lovibond (School of Psychology, UNSW) and Prof. Emeritus R.C. Gardner who kindly answered statistical queries. Thank you to David Kelly, text editor, for his valuable assistance on Chapter 1 and earlier drafts of Chapters 6 and 7. Thank you also to the teachers and students who participated in this research, which made the study possible. v COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... vi Page of Contents Originality Statement ..................................................................................................................... ii List of publications ......................................................................................................................... iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... v COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ....................................................................................................................... vi AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ................................................................................................................ vi Page of Contents ................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables and Figures ................................................................................................. xiv CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Background ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. The Study .................................................................................................................................... 5 1.3. Motivation .................................................................................................................................. 7 1.3.1. Exploration of Issues ..................................................................................................................... 8 1.4. Organisation of the Chapters ............................................................................................ 10 CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................................. 12 Literature Review of Related Research: Motivation ................................................ 12 2.0. Synthesis of Four Motivational Models .......................................................................... 13 2.1. The social psychological period (1959-1990) ............................................................ 15 2.1.1.