Language Learning Motivation in a Multilingual Chinese Context

Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from teachers and students in Hong Kong’s secondary schools, this book examines critical questions in relation to language learning motivation and instructional contexts. Readers are provided with a critical overview of developments in theory and research on language learning motivation and the potential to further extend these developments.

Grounded in the Douglas Fir Group conceptualization of language learning, the book explores the complex interplay of diverse factors that shape learners’ motivation. It offers a unique window into the situated nature of language learning motivation in the macro, meso, and micro contexts of a Chinese heritage society. In so doing, it brings the Chinese voice into the theorization of this important language learning construct. Potential future research avenues are suggested, and implications for policy and practice are discussed.

This book will be a useful resource for academics and postgraduates interested in the fields of English as a second language (ESL), English language teaching, language teaching and learning.

Mairin Hennebry-Leung is Lecturer in Languages and TESOL at the University of Tasmania and was previously Assistant Professor in English Language Education at the University of Hong Kong.

Xuesong (Andy) Gao is Professor in Language and Literacy Education in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and was previously Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong.