The impact of task motivation on learners’ attention to form and subsequent learning in interactive tasks

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the impact of task motivation, conceptualized through situated expectancy value theory, on learners' attention to form and subsequent learning in oral interactive tasks. We hypothesized that the type and quality of learners' task motivation impacts how learners attend to, perform, and learn from tasks. In dyads, 106 Vietnamese learners of English performed an opinion-gap task and an information-gap task. Their attention to form in these oral tasks was measured through LREs which were coded for the frequency, type, and their resolution. We developed a tailor-made test for each dyad, based on their interaction, that included the formal features discussed in their LREs and administered this as a delayed test to assess whether their attention to form had resulted in subsequent learning of these features. Our preliminary analyses tested and established validity for all measures of task motivation using factor analytic models. Our main results showed that learners did indeed focus on different aspects of form across the different tasks, but task type did not affect learners' task motivation. Learners expected to succeed equally well in both tasks and perceived the value and cost of performing both tasks as similar. Task motivation was, consequently, not a significant predictor of learners' focus on form in the number and type of LREs produced, how those LREs were resolved, or learners' subsequent learning. Finally, our analyses suggested that learners' specific focus on form was linked to their subsequent learning in the opinion gap task though not in the information gap task. We discuss the implications of task-specific measures of motivation and the ways in which learners’ task performance and focus on form during task completion drives actual learning independent of task motivation.