Korean High School Students’ Motivation in Learning English and the Duration of Studying English: An Investigation of ‘Whether’ and ‘When’ They Stop Studying English

Korean High School Students’ Motivation in Learning English and the Duration of Studying English: An Investigation of ‘Whether’ and ‘When’ They Stop Studying English

Second language (L2) learners’ motivation is considered a critical affective factor for L2 learning. Previous studies on L2 motivation suggest that learners with high motivation can stay longer in learning a target language than those with low motivation. Despite this suggestion, only a small number of studies are concerned with a relationship between learners’ motivation and the length of L2 learning based on qualitative data from a small sample of less than 20 learners. The present study fills this gap in the literature by empirically examining whether Korean EFL learners’ motivation contributes to their duration of learning English. In other words, students with higher motivation are more likely to sustain their L2 learning than those with lower motivation. A total of 872 high school students, from 5 high schools, participated in the study, and survival analysis (Cox proportional hazard model) was used for analyzing data collected from questionnaires. Results show that students with higher motivation are less likely to quit learning English, compared with those with lower motivation. Specifically, a 15-point increase in students’ motivation score decreases the hazard (i.e., risk of quitting English study) by 10%, while taking into account into students’ other individual variables. (196 words)