(A) Comparative Study on Motivation and English Achievement Among Students in Alternative School and Public High School

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the differences in motivation pattern between students in public high school and alternative school. Also, it aims to identify any differences in the level of motivation according to different levels of English achievement. To this end, the following two research questions have been set.
1. Are there any differences in the level of motivation subtypes between students in public school and alternative school?
2. Are there any differences in the level of motivation according to different levels of English achievement?
The participants of this study were 190 students in D public school located in Seoul, and 119 students in H alternative school located in Pohang. A survey on motivation based on the self-determination theory (SDT) was administered along with a cloze test for measuring English achievement level. The cloze test constituted of sentences with ten blanks to fill in with appropriate words such as verb, noun, or prepositions, to complete the sentence. The motivation survey was developed by drawing on Noels et al. (2000), Tanaka (2013), and Ji (2011), and it measures motivational orientations for learning English. It is composed of 5 subscales with 4 items each to measure the level of: amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation. Also, participants’ background information was included in the survey to find the participants’ characteristics.
The main findings are as follows. First, it was shown that the level of motivation do not differ significantly according to different types of schools. The only statistically significant difference that is shown due to difference in types of schools was external regulation (F = 5.504, p =.020). Therefore, it can be concluded that except for external regulation, the two different educational settings, public high school and alternative school, do not have a significant effect on motivation.
Second, the data analysis revealed that level of motivation differ more significantly with different levels of achievement than with different types of schools. There were statistically significant differences for three different subtypes of motivation with different levels of achievement: amotivation (F = 5.529, p =.004), identified regulation (F = 3.439, p =.033), and intrinsic motivation (F = 4.508, p =.012).
Upon examining the post tests for these subtypes of motivation that differed significantly with different achievement levels, a pattern could be observed. For the subtype of motivation with lower self-determination, amotivation, the mean score of amotivation decreased with increasing levels of achievement. On the other hand, for the subtype of motivation with higher self-determination, identified regulation and intrinsic motivation, the mean scores increased with increasing levels of achievement.
Third, the highest level of motivation was shown commonly to be identified regulation for both public high school (M = 3.83) and alternative school (M = 3.96). The subsequent level of motivation subtypes from highest to lowest were also in the same order for both schools: The highest level of motivation was identified regulation (public M = 3.83; alternative M = 3.96), then intrinsic motivation (public M = 3.10; alternative M = 3.26), introjected regulation (public M = 2.86; alternative M = 2.97), external regulation (public M = 2.85; alternative M = 2.66), and finally amotivation (public M = 2.61; alternative M = 2.34).
The pedagogical implication of the results is that there is a need for employing means to increase higher self-determined motivation in both public high school students and alternative school students. It would be important to facilitate students to have higher sense of autonomy and self-determination through improvements in the classroom environment and teaching methodology.

국문 초록 (Abstract)

본 연구는 일반계 고등학교와 대안학교 학생간의 영어 학습 동기 양상을 탐색하고 차이를 비교 분석하고, 두 학교의 학생들의 동기 유형이 성취 수준에 따라 어떠한 차이를 보이는지 탐색 및 분석하는데 목적이 있다. 이러한 목적을 위해 다음 과 같은 연구문제를 설정하였다.
첫째, 일반계 학교와 대안학교 학생들 간에 영어 동기 유형에 수준 차이가 있는가?
둘째, 영어 학습 성취도 수준에 따라 동기 유형에 수준 차이가 있는가?
이와 같은 연구문제를 탐색하기 위해 서울특별시 소재의 일반계 고등학교 학생 190명과 포항시 소재의 대안학교 항생 119명을 대상으로 동기 유형을 알아보는 설문과 영여 성취도 평가를 위한 클로즈 테스트를 실시하였다. 클로즈 테스트는 동사, 명사, 전치사로 적절하게 문장을 완성시키도록 빈칸 열 개를 포함한 문장들로 구성되었다. 동기 설문지는 Noels와 Cle'ment(2000)의 설문문항과 Tanaka(2013)와 Ji (2011)의 설문문항을 참고하여 재구성하여 사용하였다. 이 설문지는 무동기, 외적조절, 부과된 조절, 확인된 조절의, 내적동기의 5가지 하위척도로 되어 있으며 각 요인은 4문항으로 구성되었다. 또한, 연구대상자들의 특징들을 살펴보기 위해 배경정보를 묻는 문항도 포함되었다.
본 연구를 통해 얻은 결과는 다음과 같다.
첫째, 학교의 차이는 동기 유형에 유의미한 차이를 나타내지 않았다. 학생들의 동기의 하위 유형 중 외적조절만 학교에 의한 유의미한 차이(F = 5.504, p =.020)를 보였다. 따라서 일반계 고등학교와 대안학교의 교육환경의 차이는 외적조절을 제외한 동기 유형에 유의미한 영향을 미치지 못 하는 것으로 나타났다.
둘째, 학교유형에 따른 차이보다 성취도 수준에 따른 차이가 동기 유형에 더 유의미한 차이를 나타냈다. 무동기(F = 5.529, p =.004), 확인된 조절(F = 3.439, p =.033), 내적조절(F = 4.508, p =.012)의 세 가지 동기유형이 성취도 수준에 따라 유의미한 차이를 나타냈다. 이 세 가지 동기유형에 대한 사후 결과에 따르면 낮은 자기결정성을 가진 무동기의 수준은 성취도가 높아질수록 낮아졌고, 높은 자기결정성을 가진 확인된 조절과 내적조절은 성취도가 높아질수록 높아졌다.
셋째, 동기유형 평균을 비교한 결과 일반계 고등학교와 대안학교는 동일하게 확인된 조절이 가장 높은 동기유형으로 나타났으며, 그 다음으로 내적조절, 부과된 조절, 외적조절, 무동기 순으로 나타났다.
이와 같은 결과는 일반계 고등학교와 대안학교 모두 학습자가 보다 높은 자기결정성 동기를 가질 수 있는 방안을 마련할 필요성을 시사한다. 교실 학습 환경 및 교수 방법 개선을 통해 학습자에게 자율성과 자기결정성을 부여하며 외적 동기를 내면화 할 수 있도록 도우는 것이 중요할 것이다.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1
• 1.1 Necessity for the Study 1
• 1.2 Purpose of the Study 4
• 1.3 Research Organization 5
• CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW 6
• 2.1 The Concept of Motivation 6
• 2.2 The Socio-Educational Model 8
• 2.2.1 Integrative Motivation 9
• 2.2.2 Instrumental Motivation 10
• 2.3 Limitations in the Socio-Educational Model 11
• 2.4 A Learning Context: Alternative Schools 15
• 2.5 Alternative Education and Alternative Schools 19
• 2.5.1 Definition of Alternative Education 19
• 2.5.2 Characteristics of Alternative Education 21
• 2.5.3 Literature Review on Alternative Schools in Korea 23
• 2.6 Self-Determination Theory 27
• 2.6.1 Motivational Orientations 31
• 2.7 Literature Review on Self-Determination Theory 36
• CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY 41
• 3.1 Research Questions 41
• 3.2 Participants 42
• 3.2.1 Educational Setting of H Alternative School 47
• 3.3 Instruments 48
• 3.3.1 Survey 49
• 3.3.2 English Achievement Assessment 51
• 3.4 Procedures 52
• 3.5 Data Analysis 53
• CHAPTER IV. RESULTS 54
• 4.1 Differences in Level of Motivation with Different Types of Schools and Different Levels of Achievement 54
• CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION 68
• 5.1 Summary of Main Findings 68
• 5.2 Pedagogical Implications 73
• 5.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research 75
• REFERENCES 77
• APPENDICES 88
• ABSTRACT IN KOREAN 92