The differences of motivation for learning English between Filipinos and Japanese
Keiko Hirai 051070
Summary
In this thesis, my aim was to examine the features of motivation for learning
English of each country, Japan and The Philippines, and find out what kinds of things
affect their formation of motivation. There are a lot of English learners in Japan but they
have various kinds of aims for learning English. Moreover, culture, the background of the
country, life style, situation and position of English strongly affect English learners’
motivation. By finding out about how motivation affects language acquisition, teachers
will be able to give learners good motivation for learning English. Moreover, learners can
find out how they motivate themselves too.
Research questions.
1. What are the differences of their use of English in their daily lives, and how
those difference factors trigger the differences of motivation for studying
English between Filipino and Japanese subjects?
2. How are the English level of Filipinos and Japanese?
3. Which types of motivation, intrinsic or extrinsic, dominate their motivation?
The experiment
Subjects: a) Filipino Subjects
40 Filipinos people took part in the study. I arranged four groups according
to the age; 1) 16-18, 2) 19-22, 3) 23-30, 4) 30-50. They live in Iloilo city in
the Philippines and have different occupations, such as high school
students, university students, or worker. They also have different dialects
and levels of English skill.
b) Japanese Subjects
I asked 142 Japanese subjects who are in Okayama, Japan and they also
have different occupations. Their first language is Japanese. Just like the
Filipinos, they also have different levels of English skill.
Results
Table 1: How often do you use English in your daily life?
Listening
Reading
Speaking
Writing
Grammar
Translation
Filipinos
84.5%
86.0%
50.0%
76.0%
61.0%
23.0%
Japanese
24.0%
19.0%
5.0%
12.0%
24.0%
26.0%
Filipino subjects use most of the English skills in their daily lives, but Japanese don’t use them.
I set the question for finding out their English levels, such as TOEIC, TOFLE score, but I
couldn’t collect those data. Therefore, I researched their English levels from the official TOFLE
score.
Table 2: Paper-Based test (PBT) TOEFL Section and Total Scores
Listening
Structure and Written
Reading
Total
Comprehension
expression
Comprehension
Filipinos
59
59
56
580
Japanese
52
52
53
526
Max
68
68
67
677
Table 3: Internet-Based test (iBT) TOEFL Section and Total Score
Reading Listening Speaking Writing Total
Filipinos
21
22
22
22
88
Japanese
16
16
15
18
65
Max
30
30
30
30
120
We can see the English level of Filipinos and Japanese from the data of TOEFL test
score. I researched about two kinds of score, Paper-Based test (PBT) and Internet-Based test
(iBT). These tables show that Filipinos’ score is higher than Japanese in both tests.
Table 4: The number of the subjects who answered about two types of motivation.
Filipinos
Japanese
Intrinsic motivation
55.9%
30.1%
Extrinsic motivation
61.7%
29.3%
Intrinsic; 55.9% of Filipino subjects feel they are learning English because of the reasons
which come from inside of them. 30.1% of Japanese subjects are learning English
because of their intrinsic motivation.
Extrinsic; 61.7% of Filipino subjects thought they are/were studying English because of
the reasons which come from outside of them. On the other hand, 29.3% of Japanese
subjects are / were studying English because of the extrinsic motivational factors.
In the data of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, we can also see that Filipino subjects’
ratio is double that of the Japanese one.
In short, Filipino subjects are more highly motivated than the Japanese. I found
that the life styles and the use of English affect the reason for having motivation for
English learning strongly. Moreover, more Filipino subjects thought they need English in
their fathers. For Japanese learners, teachers need to give some reason for learning
English in Japan, and also chance to use English out of the classroom.