College EFL learners' speaking motivation under English-medium instruction policy

Abstract

This study aims to examine how English-medium instruction policy in an EFL context is interrelated with L2 motivation and achievement of the students taking a college English speaking course. The data consisted of 88 Korean college students' questionnaire responses, final scores in an English speaking course, and qualitative interviews with 8 students. The findings indicated that the students had higher extrinsic motivation than intrinsic motivation. Participants' perception of contributions of foreign instructors and of the English-medium instruction has been examined as the two subscales of the learning context under English-medium instruction policy, which engendered high scores. Whereas these contextual factors had significant correlations with achievement in speaking, motivation was found to have no direct correlation with the achievement. The results corroborate the roles of the learning context in the learning process as motivational subscales affect achievement through their interplay with the context. The role of the English-medium instruction policy, therefore, is significant as a mediating factor, which influences students' motivation on the one hand and their speaking achievement on the other hand.