Abstract:

Motivation is an important aspect in learning a foreign language. It becomes even more crucially important for learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) because Japanese falls into the same category as Arabic and Mandarin, all of which are very difficult to learn and master. Unlike Arabic and Mandarin which may even be a first or second language to some Malaysian students, Japanese largely remains as a foreign language to many of them. This paper presents quantitative data analysis of a study on Malaysian engineering students' perceptions of learning JFL in a self-directed instructional setting using a blended learning approach. The study employed survey methodology and used a questionnaire as its data collection instrument. Respondents comprised 120 JFL learners among Malaysian engineering undergraduate students at Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) who enrolled in JFL elective course offered by the Department of Foreign Languages (DFL), Centre for Modern Languages (CML). Their reactions towards JFL course motivational instructional materials were measured in terms of attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction (ARCS) using an adapted form of the Reduced Instructional Materials Motivational Survey (RIMMS) which has been modified from the original Instructional Materials Motivational Survey (IMMS) based on the ARCS model. The findings of this study have suggested that students reacted favourably to the JFL course motivational materials. It is therefore recommended that a more in-depth exploratory follow-up study is conducted in order to gain a deeper understanding of why and how these students reacted favourably to the JFL course motivational materials in the given setting and learning environment.

Keywords:

Motivation, Japanese as a foreign language, self-directed learning, blended learning.