Abstract
The present paper discusses task motivation in L3 comprehension and production, as revealed by think-aloud protocols and communication strategies. As Dörnyei (2003) has pointed out, task performance is accompanied by constant appraisal, which influences participants’ executive motivation, or the motivational dimension directly connected with the execution of the task. Think-aloud protocols (TAPs) reveal the affective states caused by the participants’ ongoing appraisal of their performance, ranging from frustration to satisfaction. However, in accordance with attribution theory (Weiner 2000), an important role is played by the participants’ attribution of success and failure to internal or external factors. As the results show, participants who acknowledge their own comprehension mistakes, for example, taking a false friend for a cognate, and who are simultaneously motivated to execute the task properly, revise and correct their interpretations. By contrast, those who attribute their comprehension failure to the text are less motivated to find and correct errors in their interpretations. On the basis of the TAPs, comprehension strategies can be divided here into inference strategies, used to infer the meanings of unknown words, and contextual compatibility control strategies, which serve to check the compatibility of the inferred meanings with the context. Similarly, the use of communication strategies reveals the participants’ choice and executive motivation (Dörnyei’s 2003). Choice motivation operates at the stage of message planning: low motivation led some of them to choose simple recipes and present them briefly, while more motivated students chose more complex recipes and presented them in detail. On the other hand, executive motivation influenced the participants’ use of achievement or reduction strategies, as well as social strategies, such as appeal to authority. The study also shows the usefulness of TAPs for studying task motivation and its fluctuation during the execution of tasks.
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Włosowicz, T.M. (2013). Task Motivation in L3 Comprehension and Use, as Revealed by Think-Aloud Protocols and Communication Strategies. In: Piechurska-Kuciel, E., Szymańska-Czaplak, E. (eds) Language in Cognition and Affect. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35305-5_16
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