English learning motivation in relation to grades and study aspirations among lower secondary students
Abstract
Studies on student motivation to learn English as a foreign language (EFL) and its relationship to achievement and study aspirations among Czech students are scarce. This study aims to identify the relationship between student level of EFL achievement motivation and their achievement and study aspirations.
The results of a survey among ninth-grade basic school students (N = 324) show that the need for achievement (NfA) in EFL is a positive predictor and the need to avoid failure (NtAF) is a negative predictor of their final grade in English, of receiving a final report card with honors, and of aspiration to study at a grammar school. The effect of NfA on all indicators was, on average, lower for boys than for girls, and the effect of NtAF for boys was, on average, higher, yet the regression analysis showed that the effects were not significant.
Further research should reflect the differences in scale usage among students (e.g., by using the anchoring vignette method).