A Self-Worth Perspective of Japanese First-Year Junior High School Students’ Attitudes Towards Studying English

抄録

In this qualitative study, the attitudes of 159 first-year Japanese junior high school students towards studying English were investigated from the perspective of the self-worth theory. Students were required to write three essays about how they would react under hypothetical circumstances in which their feelings of self-worth might be threatened. The contents of the students’ essays were analyzed and matched with quadrants of Covington’s (1992) Quadripolar Model of Achievement Motivation. Although a clear conclusion could not be reached, the results did indicate that few students could be described as optimists in their English studies. Pedagogical implications to increase the number of students with optimistic views of their English studies will also be discussed. The results of this study and the implications discussed within will be especially useful for junior high school teachers, university professors involved in language education, and university pedagogy students seeking for insights to what drives junior high school students to study English.