Exploring the relationship between motivations, emotions and pragmatic marker use in English-medium instruction learners

Abstract

The aim of the present study is twofold: first, it compares full-English-medium instruction (EMI) and semi-EMI learners on a series of motivational andemotional factors (the ought to, and the ideal L2 self-motivational orientations,attitudes towards English, and foreign language anxiety and enjoyment). Second,it investigates the relationship between these individual differences (IDs) andpragmatic marker (PM) use. No previous studies have investigated these phe-nomena among semi and full EMI learners, despite the recognized need for moreresearch into the effects of IDs and pragmatic learning in EMI settings. Participantswere second and third-year EMI students. A monologue and an interaction taskwere used to obtain oral data, and questionnaires were used to gather data on IDs.Results showed that EMI and semi-EMI groups did not differ according to moti-vational orientation. However, there were significant differences between learner’smotivations depending on the year of study, where third year learners were moreought to self-motivated than second-year learners. Other findings revealed thatboth strong ought to L2 self-oriented learners as well as learners who enjoyed EMIdemonstrated an increased frequency of PM use and that learners with positiveattitudes towards English reported stronger ideal L2 selves.