The Effects of Foreign Language Learners’ Motivation on Efficacy and Anxiety in Vocabulary Learning

Abstract

One of the significant components of successful foreign language acquisition is having sufficient vocabulary (Laufer,1992; Nation, 2001). Yet, studies show vocabulary learning in the current English education in Japan relies on the students' autonomous work outside the classroom. Thus, students' motivation to improve their overall English abilities is likely to decide whether they engage in their vocabulary learning and, thus, affect the efficacy and anxiety level of their vocabulary learning (Aomori Prefectural Board of Education Cooperative Research Committee, 2006; Akutu, 2014). This study compares students who are English majors and/or with strong intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivation with students who are non-English majors to determine the correlation between motivation to learn English and the degree of efficacy and anxiety toward vocabulary learning.