An exploratory study on the relationships between attitudes toward classroom language choice, motivation, and proficiency of EFL learners

Abstract

Despite the growing number of empirical studies on using students’ first language in target language (TL) teaching, an issue yet to be investigated is the relationship between students’ attitude toward classroom language choice and other personal variables, such as their motivation to learn the TL and their proficiency in that language. In this study, 366 Korean undergraduate students completed a questionnaire on their attitudes toward classroom language choice and language learning motivation. A subset of these participants also took a computerized speaking test (n = 127) and submitted their scores on TOEIC (n = 123). Our analyses revealed that the participants were in favor of codeswitching when compared to their neutral attitude toward English-only in EFL classrooms. The participants who obtained a high score on the ‘Ideal L2 Self’ scale of motivation and those who were more proficient were more in favor of an English-only learning approach. It was also found that ‘Ideal L2 Self’ was a stronger predictor of students’ attitudes toward classroom language choice than their L2 proficiency level. These findings point to the importance of understanding students’ different types of L2 learning motivation, particularly ‘Ideal L2 Self’, before determining how and when to use an English-only approach.