A Survey of Private Japanese University Students’ Attitudes Towards English Education

Motivation researchers have suggested a multitude of constructs, each of which propose that there are several forces residing within a person that drive them to do the things they do, all of which have varying implications when it comes to learning a second language. This study, following Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self System construct of motivation, investigated a group of 85 university students in Japan, currently studying English. As part of a larger project using mixed methods and various angles of investigation, this study used qualitative measures (one-on-one interviews) to elicit personalized and individual responses from the participants. Upon analysis of the interview data, it was revealed that a plurality of the participants were motivated to learn English for reasons Dörnyei calls the Ought-to L2 Self, i.e., they believed they should study to “meet expectations or to avoid possible negative outcomes” (Dörnyei, 2010b, p. 80)