The purpose of this study is to introduce and apply the self-determination theory to Korean language teaching, which reflects the motivation types of learners.
To reach the goal of this study, first, I reviewed the studies dealing with motivation. As ...
The purpose of this study is to introduce and apply the self-determination theory to Korean language teaching, which reflects the motivation types of learners.
To reach the goal of this study, first, I reviewed the studies dealing with motivation. As a means of measuring levels of motivation according to the self-determination motivation, I referred to the 48 questions introduced by Bak, Lee, and Hong (2005), which I appropriately adjusted to be applied to foreign learners. The content of the questionnaire included SRQ-A, which was introduced by Ryan (2004) and is also known as the “Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire.” To reconcile this with Deci and Ryan (2000), I added six additional measurements to adjust for amotivation. For an evaluation of the measurement of academic achievement, I utilized K University’s Korean level test administered each semester. Because the level test determines the classes a student is allowed to take, each student approached the test with seriousness and prudence.
The scope of the study is outlined by the following.
First, in chapter one, the need for the study of motivation in the field of Korean education and the specific purpose and problems of the study are introduced.
In chapter two, the literature study of motivation is summarized as theoretic background.
In chapter three, the participants and the tools for motivation and academic achievements are introduced.
In chapter four, the aspects of motivation based on self-determination theory and the relationship between the types of motivation and academic achievements are investigated using statistical techniques.
Finally, in chapter five, the summary of the study and the comments on future research are proposed.
As a result, this study proved the following questions of the study.
First, the internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s α) of each motivation type, in order to evaluate how effectively the 48 questions of the self-determination motivation questionnaire measure the motivation of language learners, was shown to have meaningful numerical value. And motivational types that are close together showed a very strong correlation, but the farther the types are from each other, the correlation was either zero or negative. These results show that the theory can also be applied to learners of Korean as a foreign language.
Second, the highest type of motivation manifested in this study was the identified regulation, followed by integrated regulation, intrinsic motivation, introjected regulation, external regulation, and amotivation. Results according to gender followed the same order. When the overall averages of amotivation and external regulation were compared with the averages according to gender, it appeared that the averages of male students exceeded those of female students. On the other hand, when it comes to introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation, and intrinsic motivation, the averages of female students were confirmed to exceed those of male students. This shows that females on average were more inclined to intrinsic motivation, while males were more inclined to extrinsic motivation.
The Intrinsic motivation of the students appeared to decrease over time as the period of Korean education and age of the students increased.
Third, it is assumed that the extrinsic regulation, interjected regulation and intrinsic motivation would have a negative effect on academic achievements. In other words, if those motivation types were large, the academic achievement attained was low. Interestingly, intrinsic motivation seemed to have an inverse relationship with academic achievement, which contrasts with the results found by numerous researchers in the past that a positive relationship exists between intrinsic motivation and academic achievement.