Critical Review of Journal Article

Motivation in Second Language Acquisition in Chinese Research Students in the UK by

Daguo Li

Submitted as a course assignment of

Second Language Acquisition

By

Siti Fitriah - 21150140000012

Master Program of English Education Department

UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta

2015

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 This paper is a critical review of a research article entitled Motivation in Second
Language Acquisition in Chinese Research Students in the UK (United Kingdom) by Daguo Li.
The research was conducted in qualitative approach to investigate in more detail the motivation
to learn English as a second language in informal setting. It is meant to be as a complementary of
quantitative researches on motivation. The data was collected by using semi-structured interview
twice. Four Chinese research students in UK were taken as research participants. The first
interview took place in three months after the participants arrived in UK. Then the second
interview was done after the next nine months (end of the first year). The research results some
aspects related to motivation such as the importance of English and motivational orientations,
language-learning goals, perceptions of the present learning environment, attitudes toward
British people, the impact of the perceived support on motivation to learn, difficulties
encountered and confidence in English, and perceptions of success in learning English and
attributions. It is found that this article is succinct, focused, well structured and written.
Moreover its discussion would be valuable for the study of English learning motivation which
has been widely studied quantitatively.

Research topic is perfectly presented which then followed by well established theoretical
framework. The information of research background is supported by data from numerous
resources. Then it is followed by current previous researches motivation in learning English as a
second language. Several theories of motivation in language learning are there. The author places
the literatures at the beginning to frame the problem and then put it in a separate section at the
end to compare and contrast with the findings (Creswell, 2009). In this section, few
terminologies are introduced to be discussed in the following discussion. The research objectives
are to investigate several questions which are clearly identified.

The author describes the research methodology in detail. This research is a case study in
which the researcher carries out an investigation of several aspects and attribution in English
acquisition as a second language of participants (Merriam in Duff, 2008). Since it is a qualitative
research, it is significant to give details the characteristics of participants. There are four Chinese
research students as participants whom selected purposively by the researcher. The procedure of
data collection is explained sequentially and thoroughly. The researcher used semi-structured
interview twice to collect the data. The interview was given twice with more or less an hour for

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each. The questions of interview must represent the research questions. However, the questions
are not provided along with its validity, reliability or triangulation. There is no particular
limitation presented regarding to the research findings. However, an analytic generalization can
be made to any theoretical models which take into account several potential results or
relationship that exist among the factors (Duff, 2008).

Research findings are written down effectively and efficiently in narrative. There is no
table, graph or figure are integrated here. The results of each participant are described in detail. It
is well done since the author put a high degree of completeness and made a depth of analysis
which is readable as well. The results are categorized according to the research question
projected. The discussion is associated with the theories and previous researches presented in the
previous section. The author put the conclusion together with the discussion to sum it up. At the
end, the author restates that expectantly the research findings contribute to an understanding of
motivation in second language learning in an informal setting. This research is considered to be
significant as a complementary of a lot of quantitative researches. No suggestion is presented. In
conclusion, the implication is directed to target country institutions in terms of the provision of
initial support to Chinese research students.

To sum up, the research article is informative and interesting for its study field with
succinct and focused content of results and discussions. It is well written and structured in
appropriate length. The word choices are simple and easy to follow. Its generalization is limited
with specific characteristics of the study.

Reference

Creswell, J.W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods
approaches. (3rd Ed.). California, USA: SAGE Publication.

Duf, P.A. (2008).Case study research in applied linguistics second language acquisition
research: Theoretical and methodological issues. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis
Group.

Khatib, M. (2012). Task-oriented conversations: The implications of drama for second language
acquisition. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(6), 1120-1127.

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