A mixed-methods study on L2 motivation of Korean junior college English major students

Korea is an EFL context where instrumentality overpowers integrativeness for college entrance or employment because English is mainly considered a school or test subject. Integrativeness might be replaceable due to its inadequacy of explaining how L2 learners integrate into a certain L2 community in the globalized world. Thus, Dörnyei (2005, 2009a) developed the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) that could encompass both integrativeness and instrumentality as in the ideal L2 self. The L2MSS is a future-oriented tripartite framework to comprise the ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and L2 learning experience. There might be fluctuations or even surges in L2 motivation, which the new model has gained validity in its dynamic nature and imagery capacity (Dörnyei, 2010b). Thus, this study attempted to discover the dynamics of L2 motivation employing L2MSS as the main framework. Nevertheless, Korean learners of English could learn English without their L2 motivation (Kim, T.-Y., 2012b). This trend might go until or after tertiary education. Also, there has been academic elitism, hakbul, in Korea, to distinguish four-year universities and two- or three-year junior colleges, which are frequently considered second-choice or failure. Thus, this study explored junior college students, especially those majoring in English, who were studied less than four-year university students. Assuming junior college English major students’ L2 motivation is unique on their own, a longitudinal mixed-methods case study will be employed using the L2MSS. 189 students participated in the online questionnaire administration, followed by interviews with 59 and 31 students and five professors. The participants showed some L2 motivation with Korea-specific tendencies in that there was intense pressure for the future. Most significantly, there were weak ideal L2 self, strong ought-to L2 self, and universal concept of instrumentality (promotion). Therefore, this study offers pedagogical implications to complement their current L2 learning and motivation.