Motivational orienations and psychological needs in EFL learning among elementary school students in Japan

This study examined Japanese elementary school students’ motivational orientations for learning English as a foreign language (EFL) and fundamental psychological needs from a self-determination theory perspective, exploring the relations between motivational orientations (e.g., intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, introjected regulation, and external regulation) and basic psychological needs (e.g., autonomy, competence, and relatedness). An exploratory factor analysis of the motivational orientations of 505 fifth and sixth grade students of Japanese public elementary schools showed that this is composed by three factors: intrinsic motivation, introjected-and-identified regulation, and external regulation. Results showed a pattern of correlations reflecting a continuum of increasing self-determination from less self-determined forms of motivation to more self-determined forms of motivation. This study also assessed whether different types of basic psychological needs are linked to motivational orientations. Results show that psychological needs are more strongly related to intrinsic motivation than to less self-determined forms of motivation.