The Effects Of Ideal And Ought-to L2 Selves On Junior High School EFL Learners’ Writing Strategy

Second/Foreign language learning motivation(L2/FL motivation)has been a central topic in the field of L2/FL research in applied linguistics for more than half a century,but so far,it has not fully revealed its correlation with writing strategies,either theoretically or empirically.This requires us to further study tie-in between motivation and strategy in the field of English writing.To deepen the understanding of English language(EL)motivation,in the demanding and complicated writing process,this study explores how different types of motivation affect the use of writing strategies and the quality of English writing.The present study explores the effects of Ideal and Ought-to L2 selves drawn from D?rnyei’s(2005)the L2 Motivational Self System(L2MSS)on writing strategy,combined with the classroom observation(descriptive writing task)and questionnaires analysis.300 Chinese junior high school students participated in this research.Therefore,this study mainly discusses the following questions:1)What strategies will junior high school students use in their writing?2)How do “Ideal L2 self” and “Ought-to L2 self” affect their writing strategies(including “the pre-writing strategy”,“the while-writing strategy” and “the post-writing revision strategy”)? Do “Ideal L2 self” and “Ought-to L2 self” impinge a great influence on the quality of writing?3)Which variables among “Ideal L2 self” and “Ought-to L2 self” can serve as significant predictors for writing quality?Result shows that :1)Junior high school students in China usually use some strategies,such as “the pre-writing strategy”,“the while-writing strategy” and “the post-writing revision strategy”.2)“Ideal L2 self” shows significant positive correlation with “the pre-writing strategy”,“the while-writing strategy” and “the post-writing revision strategy”.Furthermore,“the pre-writing strategy” is the highest,followed by “the while-writing strategy”.The lowest is “the post-writing revision strategy”.“Ideal L2 self” shows significant positive correlation with “Writing Content”,“Writing Language”,“Writing Structure” and “Overall Writing Quality”.However,“Ought-to L2 self” shows no correlation with “Writing Content”,“Writing Language”,“Writing Structure” and “Overall Writing Quality”.3)“Ideal L2 self”can serve as significant predictors for writing quality.“Ought-to L2 self” only has a small predictor of performance.To improve students’ English writing strategy,this study provides some enlightenment about “Ideal L2 self”,considering the main determinants in the writing process.It can stimulate teachers to cultivate English learners’ consciousness of “Ideal L2 self”,and teachers can focus on English learners’ promotion of “Ideal L2 self”.