This paper reports on a study into the motives underlying the formation of a weekly English discussion group organized by mainland Chinese research students in Hong Kong as a strategic effort to improve their English. Adopting a sociocultural approach, we compared our interpretations of semi-structured interview transcripts and other data, focusing in particular the participants’ strong English learning motivation. It was found that their motives were very complex and could best be explained by the notion of investment (Norton, 1995). These motives also became the primary forces that transformed the weekly event from a learning event into a variety of activities that moved beyond improving their English speaking skills for individual participants. The paper argues that a more sociocultural or sociopolitical perspective on learning strategy should be adopted to deepen our understanding of language learners’ strategic learning behaviour.
2020. Language Learning as Investment or Consumption? A Case Study of Chinese University Students’ Beliefs about the Learning of Languages Other than English. Sustainability 12:6 ► pp. 2156 ff.
Darvin, Ron
2019. L2 Motivation and Investment. In The Palgrave Handbook of Motivation for Language Learning, ► pp. 245 ff.
Darvin, Ron & Bonny Norton
2015. Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35 ► pp. 36 ff.
Darvin, Ron & Bonny Norton
2016. Language, Identity, and Investment in the Twenty-first Century. In Language Policy and Political Issues in Education, ► pp. 1 ff.
Darvin, Ron & Bonny Norton
2017. Language, Identity, and Investment in the Twenty-first Century. In Language Policy and Political Issues in Education, ► pp. 1 ff.
Darvin, Ron & Bonny Norton
2017. Language, Identity, and Investment in the Twenty-First Century. In Language Policy and Political Issues in Education, ► pp. 227 ff.
Darvin, Ron & Bonny Norton
2019. Identity. In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Learning, ► pp. 451 ff.
Ennser-Kananen, Johanna
2019. “No, I’m Not Reading”: How Two Language Learners Enact Their Investments by Crossing and Blurring the Boundaries of Literacy and Orality. In Reconceptualizing Connections between Language, Literacy and Learning [Educational Linguistics, 39], ► pp. 83 ff.
Gao, Xuesong
2007. A tale of Blue Rain Café: A study on the online narrative construction about a community of English learners on the Chinese mainland. System 35:2 ► pp. 259 ff.
Liu, Guangxiang & Ron Darvin
2024. From Rural China to the Digital Wilds: Negotiating Digital Repertoires to Claim the Right to Speak. TESOL Quarterly 58:1 ► pp. 334 ff.
Lu, Juexuan, Lifen He & Qi Shen
2020. LOTE (Languages Other than English) learners’ investment in learning languages. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 84 ► pp. 55 ff.
Lu, Juexuan, Yajun Wang, Qi Shen & Xuesong Gao
2022. Investment in Learning Chinese by International Students Studying Chinese as a Second Language (CSL). Sustainability 14:23 ► pp. 15664 ff.
2022. Advances in Research on Technological, Pedagogical, Didactical, and Social Competencies of Preservice TCFL Teachers. Sustainability 14:4 ► pp. 2045 ff.
Perrin, Stuart
2015. Why Does Meredith Wish to Sound Like the Queen? An Investigation into Identity Issues surrounding Spoken English Usage of Chinese ELF Speakers in London. In Transcultural Interaction and Linguistic Diversity in Higher Education, ► pp. 278 ff.
Thapa, Chura Bahadur
2019. Identity and Investment in Learning English and Chinese: An Ethnographic Inquiry of Two Nepali Students in Hong Kong. In Education, Ethnicity and Equity in the Multilingual Asian Context [Multilingual Education, 32], ► pp. 33 ff.
2018. Aspirational ambivalence of middle-class secondary students in Hong Kong. British Journal of Sociology of Education 39:8 ► pp. 1094 ff.
Wang, Hao & Xia Chao
2022. Language negotiation moments of ethnic Tibetan students in People’s Republic of China: an identity perspective. Language and Education 36:4 ► pp. 346 ff.
Wang, Ying & Dong Jiang
2024. Investment, linguistic capital and identity in Chinese university students’ EMI experience. Language and Education► pp. 1 ff.
Yang, Gong, Guo Quanjiang, Li Michael, Lai Chun & Wang Chuang
2021. Developing literacy or focusing on interaction: New Zealand students’ strategic efforts related to Chinese language learning during study abroad in China. System 98 ► pp. 102462 ff.
Zhang, Yue & Jing Huang
2024. Learner Identity and Investment in EFL, EMI, and ESL Contexts: A Longitudinal Case Study of One Pre-Service Teacher. Journal of Language, Identity & Education► pp. 1 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.