One important predictor of foreign language (FL) achievement is intrinsic motivation, the desire to learn a foreign language because the experience is pleasurable and satisfying (Ryan & Deci, 2000). In contrast, studies have shown that FL achievement is either negatively related or less related to extrinsic motivation, learning a foreign language because it is required by external sources. Most of the previous research has focused on students’ achievement in written work. The purpose of the present study is to test whether these results generalize to oral vocabulary. Participants were enrolled in a beginning French or Spanish course at an English-language university. They filled out a motivation questionnaire at the start of term. The participants were highly intrinsically motivated (M = 5.3, SD = 1.2, on 7-point scale) and moderately extrinsically motivated (M = 3.0, SD = 1.1). At the end of the term, participants were invited to take a receptive oral vocabulary test and tell both a fictional and autobiographical story in French or Spanish. To assess productive vocabulary, we counted the number of unique words the participants said when telling the stories (i.e., word types). The participants’ extrinsic motivation was negatively correlated with the number of word types they used to tell the stories but not receptive vocabulary. Intrinsic motivation was unrelated to both measures of oral FL vocabulary. We argue that cognitive factors likely play a more important role in oral FL vocabulary than motivation.

Authors:
Elena Nicoladis, University of British Columbia, Canada
Kimberly A. Noels, University of Alberta, Canada

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Elena Nicoladis is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at University of British Columbia in Canada

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