A Study Of The Influence Of College Students’ L2 Motivational Self System On Learning Outcomes

As the focus of assessment of quality of higher education shifts to the students’ study and development,learning outcomes have become the core contents in higher education assessment.Motivation and student engagement,as two important factors which influence students’ learning outcomes,have been wildly discussed by scholars abroad and at home.But few scholars have systematically explored the influential effect of L2 motivational self system on student engagement and learning outcomes.Besides,few studies have been carried out to investigate the indirect effect exerted by student engagement between L2 motivational self system and learning outcomes.In order to fill the gaps mentioned above,the present research aims to investigate the functioning routes of L2 motivational self system on student engagement and learning outcomes through multiple regression analysis.In the meantime,the present research constructs Structural Equation Modeling(SEM)with behavioral engagement,affective engagement and cognitive engagement being mediators respectively to probe into the mediating effects of behavioral engagement,affective engagement and cognitive engagement between L2 motivational self system and learning outcomes.The data of the present research is collected by means of questionnaire survey and semi-interviews.Altogether 1375 questionnaires are distributed to freshmen and sophomores in two universities of Shandong province with 1075 samples being valid.Subsequently,four students of each university that have participated in the questionnaire survey are invited to be interviewed.The whole interview process of each participant is recorded and transcribed as supplement for the quantitative data.The results show: 1)L2 learning experience and ideal L2 self both positively predict student engagement,while ought-to L2 doesn’t have predictive power in student engagement.This result indicates that,compared with external expectations,ideal future self and positive learning experience can more promote student engagement;L2 learning experience and ought-to L2 self both have direct positive influential effects on learning outcomes,while ideal L2 self can’t influence learning outcomes directly.This suggests that positive learning experience and external expectations can more directly promote learning outcomes.2)Positive and significant indirect effects of behavioral engagement,affective engagement and cognitive engagement are verified between L2 learning experience,ideal L2 self and learning outcomes.Whilst ought-to L2 self cannot indirectly influence learning outcomes through behavioral engagement,affective engagement and cognitive engagement.Nonetheless,ought-to L2 self and ideal L2 self can exert significant impacts on student engagement through L2 learning experience,thus ultimately pushing student’s learning outcomes.In conclusion,the results of the present research reveal that L2 motivational self system can directly or indirectly influences students’ learning outcomes through student engagement.Meanwhile,this study has some limitations.Firstly,the present research just selects two universities in Shandong province as participants,thus samples can be further expanded in future’s studies.Secondly,the present study doesn’t involve the discussion about the different results that may be brought by individual differences.Thus,the learners with different proficiency levels and disciplines can be categorized in future’s studies to be further discussed.