The relationship between second language anxiety and motivation among Japanese language learners

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between second language anxiety and motivation. The investigation was carried out with 78 students who were studying Japanese as a second language in Japan. From the results of a factor analysis of motivation, two factors were identified as "desire to acquire the Japanese language" and "interest in, and enjoyment of learning, the Japanese language". There was no correlation between these two motivations and Motoda's Japanese Language Anxiety Scale (JLAS). However the analysis of variance, including the scale for self-efficacy constructed in this study, indicated that among the students who felt anxiety there was a tendency for "desire to acquire the Japanese language" or "the self-efficacy of the Japanese language" to be high, whilst "interest in, and enjoyment of learning, the Japanese language" was found to be low. On the other hand, there was a tendency among students without anxiety for "desire to acquire the Japanese language" or "the self-efficacy of the Japanese language" to be high and "interest in, and enjoyment of learning, the Japanese language" to also be high.