Shifting motivational discourses among mainland Chinese students in an English medium tertiary institution in Hong Kong: a longitudinal inquiry

Abstract

This article draws on a longitudinal study of a group of mainland Chinese students’ English learning experiences in an English medium university in Hong Kong, and explores the dynamic nature of their language learning motivation prior to and after their arrival in Hong Kong. The study identified context‐mediated and self‐determined elements in the participants’ learning motivational discourses. The context‐mediated motivational discourses echoed the societal discourses of learning, and were shaped by the contextual conditions on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong, including the roles of English, academic competition and medium of instruction. Through an extended socialization process, mediated by various social agents, some of these context‐mediated motivational discourses became internalized and transformed into self‐determined ones among many participants in later stages of their learning. The article argues for an integrated perspective, viewing learner motivation as a dynamic construct emerging from learners’ interaction with contextual conditions.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Professor Malcolm Tight, anonymous reviewers, and Dr Peter Kelly for their constructive comments on earlier drafts of this article. The study was also partially funded by an award from the Wu Jieh‐Yee Research Fund at the University of Hong Kong.