Attribution and learning English asa foreign language Matthew Peacock Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi on March 15, 2016 Learner attributions, perceived causes of success and failure, have received little attention in EFL research. Attributions are categorized as either internal (for example effort) or external (for example luck) and may affect how students learn about and impose order on their world. We investigated the attributions of 505 university students in Hong Kong and the connections between attribution and proficiency, gender, and academic discipline. Student interviews identified 26 common attributions, which were listed in a questionnaire: students were asked to what they attributed E F L success or failure. Follow-up interviews investigated the origins of attributions. Also, 40 EFL teachers were asked to what they attributed student success and failure. Many statistically significant differences were found between attribution and E F L proficiency, gender, and academic discipline and between student and teacher opinions. We conclude that attribution affects proficiency, effort, and persistence. Finally, suggestions are made for learner training and teacher action in the EFL classroom. Introduction Attributions, which are perceived reasons for success and failure resulting from self-questioning such as ‘Why did I get a poor grade?’, have received surprisingly little attention in E F L research. Psychologists suggest that attribution is how students learn about themselves and impose order on uncertain environments (Graham 1994: 32). We investigated Hong Kong university student attributions and the links between attribution and gender, academic discipline, and E F L proficiency. We also asked EF L teachers to what they attributed student success and failure and compared student and teacher opinions. Finally, we asked students about the origins of their attributions. Previous research in The topic of attribution matured with Weiner’s influential 1992 book. psychology Weiner established that attributions vary in three ways: 1 whether they are internal (for example effort) or external (for example luck) 2 whether they are stable (whether the attribute is open to change: effort can be increased, while innate ability cannot) 3 whether they can be controlled (for example effort is controllable, whereas luck is not). 184 E LT Journal Volume 64/2 April 2010; doi:10.1093/elt/ccp031 ª The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved. Advance Access publication May 7, 2009 reinforcing student beliefs and behaviour. Two other studies investigated E F L/L2 attributions. Attribution and learning English as a foreign language 185 . He adds that attributing results to internal and controllable factors gives people feelings of control and stimulates them to try hard and succeed. teachers should know about it because they may be able to change unhelpful attributions. EFL attribution as EFL attributions. effort. though these are less important for our research as the students were children. Schraw. Also. students attribute E F L success or failure to external or uncontrollable rather than internal or controllable factors. He says the four main attributions are ability. while teachers attributed success to adequate teaching materials and methods. Williams. The reasons they gave for doing well were effort. He also theorizes that failure attributed to uncontrollable factors hinders achievement and that this important area has further scope for research. Graham (1994: 33) says research is needed here and we agree because this may help teachers better understand E F L students and learning and intervene to avoid undesirable attributions. and the reasons for failure were distractions. positive attitudes. whereas teachers attributed it to inadequate materials. (There appear to be no previous findings on gender. This study is important as it investigated adult L2 attributions. Nist. as do Holschuh. and Al-Baharna (2001) asked 25 Bahraini E F L schoolchildren and 29 teachers why students succeeded or failed in English. they might withhold help from students. effort. Many authors say they are part of a framework of rationale for research interrelationships.oxfordjournals. If. and Olejnik (2001: 157). Others speculate about E F L attribution. 2016 EFL/L2 French: they mentioned ability. Burden. for example. and luck and hypothesizes that attribution affects effort and persistence because we work harder when we believe success comes as a result of effort. as we have seen. and this affects learning. Williams and Burden call for more research into E F L attribution and speculate that gender may be an important factor. ability. Others have added to Weiner’s theories: Borich (1995: 228) says people inevitably try to explain success and failure. but need to increase their awareness.org/ at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi on March 15. 134) suggests that attribution affects proficiency. and effort. and Ronning (2004: 123) suggest that attribution varies considerably among students. and teachers. Tollefson and Chen (1988: 264) theorize that when teachers attribute student failure to a low level of effort. while with external and uncontrollable attributions people may be discouraged and not try hard. are reasons or beliefs people hold about why they a concept and succeed or fail in E F L. little seems to be known about the origin of attributions. then. Dörnyei (2001a: 57. Students attributed failure to poor teaching and lack of family and teacher support.) Williams et al. Students attributed success to practice plus teacher and family support. and love of French. and Bruning. Previous research in Ushioda (2001) asked 14 Irish university students why they succeeded in L2 Downloaded from http://eltj. Norby. and lack of revision and ability. task difficulty. hypothesize that attribution plays a significant role in E F L. poor teaching. We also propose that teacher attributions are important because they may affect teacher behaviour. We suggest that teachers are often unaware of student attributions. Williams and Burden (1999) asked 36 British schoolchildren learning French why they did and did not do well. believing this will not lead to success. We checked the connections between attribution and gender. Data collection and First. 60 per cent Subjects and school studying sciences/40 per cent humanities. Research into gender and academic discipline links is also important because teachers have to know about these varying attributions in order to deal with them. 2 To investigate the origin of student attributions.e. Data analysis: percentages of agreement/disagreement were calculated for questionnaire items and collapsed into three categories for clarity. we interviewed 60 students. 3 To make recommendations for eliminating undesirable attributions. 25 per cent each) were used for proficiency data. The questionnaire listed the same items and asked to what teachers attribute student success and failure. ‘agree’. Standard Year 1 test results (listening comprehension. Students gave 15 reasons for success and 11 for failure. and speaking. Previous research has not investigated the vital relationship between attribution and proficiency. reading. we modified the questionnaire to collect E F L teacher opinions. and ‘strongly disagree’. The meaning of ‘attribution’ was carefully explained. Research aims 1 To investigate student attributions towards learning E F L and test four hypotheses taken from literature: H1 Student attributions differ from teacher attributions H2 Attribution differs by gender H3 Attribution differs by academic discipline H4 There is a relationship between attribution and EFL proficiency. writing.org/ at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi on March 15.oxfordjournals. We suggest that the topic remains under-researched and that further investigation would make a useful contribution to our understanding of E F L. mixed by gender and academic analysis discipline. we collected questionnaires from 505 students in class. We suggest that knowledge of attribution is valuable for EFL teachers and students and has implications for learner and teacher awareness and training. i. and this should be verified because it may be possible to change undesirable attributions. We constructed a questionnaire with these 26 attributions (see Appendix) using a five-point scale: ‘strongly agree’. we interviewed a different group of 60 students about the origin of their attributions. 2016 female) studying E F L and 40 EFL teachers at the City University of Hong Kong. The order of items was randomized. Students wrote their number on their questionnaire so we could check the connections between attribution and proficiency. and asked them to what they attribute E F L success and failure. We then collected questionnaires from 40 university EFL teachers. ‘neither agree nor disagree’. Finally. ‘disagree’. academic 186 Matthew Peacock . combining strongly agree/agree and disagree/strongly disagree. Students were mixed by gender and academic discipline. 56 per cent male/44 per cent Downloaded from http://eltj. Research method Participants were 505 undergraduates (98 per cent Cantonese. Second. Next. we will show students’ and teachers’ five most common attributions for success. themselves. 2 Outside class. Teachers strongly attributed failure to anxiety plus a lack of confidence. Teachers strongly attributed student success to effort. we found 15 statistically significant differences between teacher and student opinions about student attribution. 4 I read a lot (English newspapers/books) outside class. 3 I paid attention in class. Most of these attributions are internal to subject. Results The results are presented here and discussed in the following section. 5 I watched English television/listened to English songs outside class. while students did not. H2 Attribution differed significantly by gender There were seven statistically significant differences. with the largest difference first: Attribution and learning English as a foreign language 187 . Females were significantly more likely to attribute success to the following factors. i. students were significantly more likely to attribute both success and failure to luck than were teachers. These efforts were outside class: reading a lot. I looked up words I did not know in a dictionary/studied vocabulary. and previous results. Finally. in ranked order: Students 1 My teacher was a good teacher. Downloaded from http://eltj. Teachers 1 They loved/were interested in English.oxfordjournals.org/ at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi on March 15. open to change).e. focusing on English. Student interview data were searched for common origins of attributions and these were categorized.76 and the teacher questionnaire at 0. and proficiency using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The level of reliability of the student questionnaire was calculated using SPSS at a high 0. 5 Their teacher praised/encouraged them. This software tests the difference between scores from two groups (for example male/female proficiency) to see whether the difference is statistically significant or not.e. watching television and listening to songs. 4 They read a lot (English newspapers/books) outside class. under subjects’ control). discipline. while students did not. Two items are common to both students and teachers: (3) and (4). and working hard in class. 2 They revised a lot for tests/studied hard in class. unstable (i.e. 3 They paid attention in class. and controllable (i. unstable. while students did not. It should be noted that all four hypotheses were supported.85. Second. whether there is a likelihood of 95 per cent or higher that it did not happen by chance. 2016 H1 Students possessed a variety of attributions towards learning EFL First. and controllable. Most of these attributions are internal. and inside: paying attention. Teachers attributed both success and failure to student love/enjoyment of/interest in English. competing hard with classmates. which are ranked. and revising hard for tests. org/ at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi on March 15. 3 I focused on English outside school. Another student failed 188 Matthew Peacock . and failure to a lack of enjoyment. ‘The tests were easy’. We can see that science students attributed success to good luck and to easy tests and failure to bad luck. teacher praise and encouragement. 3 I loved/was interested in English. Many students told of failing. which follow below. Humanities students attributed success to three factors. 3 I competed with myself/my previous results. ‘I did not enjoy English’. I looked up words I did not know in a dictionary/studied vocabulary. Humanities students. All three factors are external and uncontrollable. H4 A statistically significant connection between six attributions and E F L proficiency More proficient students attributed success to these four factors: 1 I paid attention in class. These are. Student interviews These interviews on the origin of attributions were quite successful and useful information was obtained. 2 My teacher praised/encouraged me. 2016 H3 Attribution differed significantly by academic discipline We found five six statistically significant differences. 6 I competed hard with my classmates. Less proficient students attributed success to easy tests. The most common origin was personal experience. 4 I competed with myself/my previous results. Three main categories emerged. in ranked order: 1 I loved/was interested in English. on the other hand. this was not the case with less proficient students. for example one student said test items he revised did not appear and now he believes ‘my failure in test depends on luck’. Most of these attributions are internal. and the following quotations represent these.oxfordjournals. and their own efforts. 1 My teacher praised/encouraged me. who attributed both success and failure to other factors. tended to attribute success to love of English. and controllable. 5 I revised a lot for tests/studied hard in class. 4 I revised a lot for tests/studied hard in class. 2 I loved/was interested in English. So we can see that while more proficient students attributed success primarily to their own efforts. Downloaded from http://eltj. 7 Outside class. 2 The tests were easy. We can see that female students were significantly more likely to attribute success to their own efforts than were male students. 2 I paid attention in class. unstable. Science students attributed success to two factors: 1 Luck: ‘I was lucky’/‘I was unlucky’. . acquire successful English’. We suggest that this may be due to science students being more likely to see both success and failure as outside their control and that this may originate from previous EFL experiences. Another explanation is that students experience a lack of control over their E F L learning and school life. and luck. while students attributed success and failure to luck. . ‘I had an unhappy experience during my Form two English examination’. I don’t want to make her sad’. . and ‘My mother . causes of success/ failure that they observed in others). Attribution and learning English as a foreign language 189 . Other typical comments were ‘The result will not reflect the real situation . This finding provides support for Dörnyei’s conjecture that failure attributed to uncontrollable factors hinders achievement. help the children . I would work hard too. . if I put effort in learning English. . memory. a test and concluded. Discussion and Our findings differed from previous E F L research. and less proficient students attributed both success and failure to factors outside their control. for Downloaded from http://eltj. . and ‘My memory is not good . It is more difficult to see why this occurs but it may be because students do not see any link between success/failure and interest levels in a subject. Others learnt from better experiences and said they did well after that. It is noteworthy that more proficient students attributed success to their (controllable) efforts. . I won’t have much improvement’.e. We suggest that this means that students perceive effort to be ineffective and therefore often attribute success and failure to other factors such as intelligence. . for example ‘I saw this guy carrying the dictionary all the time .oxfordjournals.org/ at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi on March 15. ‘Teachers’ encouragement . that’s why he improved quickly’ and ‘When most of my friends were hard working. [now] I don’t put much effort in learning English’. . I worked hard so that I could be part of them’. . makes me feel that I can be successful’. or what kind of effort you had paid’. It is striking that all three factors are external and uncontrollable and we propose that this is an important feature of these results. Our teacher and student opinions differed significantly: teachers attributed student success to effort. . Our student interview data provide support for the latter notion. It is not easy to explain our academic discipline differences of science students attributing success to good luck and easy tests and failure to bad luck. and success/failure to love/enjoyment of/interest in English. We will consider the meaning of the number of significant connections we found between attribution and proficiency. Also. 2016 example ‘Influence of the family . . aptitude. . students did not. for example ‘The teacher creates a feeling that learning English is fun’ and ‘Assistance from teacher . . . while others said they learnt that success came from having good teachers. The third most common origin was observation (i. ‘I’m not talented in language . which is not surprising conclusions given the different contexts. Teachers attributed failure to anxiety plus a lack of confidence. The second most common origin was being told something positive. for example ‘I feel good when I can use English to chat with other people’ and ‘Learning English just makes me feel good and happy’. has lots of hope on me. . some think English is not interesting (and therefore useless) and do not ‘waste’ time making much effort with its study. family can positively influence their children to learn English. . [led to] high marks’. . and observation. We suggest that once attributions are identified they can be modified. This may explain these results: we suggest that certain attributions facilitate better EFL learning. 190 Matthew Peacock . And beyond this. effort. the modifications may affect action: Weiner (1992: 264) described his theory of attributional change—changes in attribution produce changes in behaviour—and other writers also make suggestions. The direction of cause and effect seems to be that attribution leads to more proficient students working harder and gaining better proficiency. teacher understanding. adding that everyone has an equal chance with the former but not the latter. 2016 way of looking at the proficiency results is to note that less proficient students’ attributions differ more from teacher attributions: these students have different ideas from the more proficient students about the reasons for success and failure. teacher action. Implications for It is possible that in many E F L classrooms around the world the proportion teaching E FL of students with undesirable attributions is higher than teachers would wish. This has implications for learner training. Our findings lead us to suggest that it may be advantageous to promote certain attributions among students as this may lead to improved beliefs. memory.oxfordjournals. In any case. and teacher training. Our interviews provided useful data on the origin of attributions. pointing out that success and failure have alternative causes. Some students may not see the point of working hard and therefore make less effort than is desirable. Our results indicate that common origins of attributions are personal experiences. Another Downloaded from http://eltj. Also. Bruning et al. Dörnyei (2001b: 120–1) proposes encouraging students’ effort attributions and playing down ability attributions. Borich (1995: 233) notes that teacher behaviour conveys attributional information to students and that therefore teachers should monitor the attributional messages they send. we want to argue that our proficiency findings are important for E F L teachers because any factors known to affect proficiency must be of interest to them. which indicate that students who attribute success and failure to factors such as intelligence. these findings provide support for the proposal that attribution affects effort and persistence. while attributing them to uncontrollable factors discourages them with the result that they make less effort the next time (as this will not lead to success). Attributions may form early on and input on attribution may be a useful part of the transition from primary to secondary to tertiary education. and this is backed up by student interview data. these student experiences seem to have lasting effects: the link between past and present—between these students’ past experiences and their current attitudes and actions—can be clearly seen in their comments. family influence. and luck tend to become discouraged and reduce their efforts in learning English. aptitude. and these data indicate that attributions form relatively early on. and proficiency. (2004: 125) suggest discussing the effects of different attributions with students. Weiner says attributing results to controllable factors gives people a feeling of control and stimulates them to try hard and succeed. In any case.org/ at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi on March 15. He suggests giving effort feedback and modelling the connection between effort and outcomes. and helping them focus on controllable attributions. none of which teachers can prevent. are they emphasizing the role of effort in success? 6 student attributions may form early and be long lasting 7 the origins of student attribution may be personal experiences such as failing. do the students know they are unhelpful? Possible ways of changing attributions: 1 Talk openly to your students about the effects of different attributions.org/ at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi on March 15. 3 When you talk to students. Failure can be devastating for students. and working hard in class (illustrate these with examples from your class or school). downplay the role of intelligence. Do they have helpful or unhelpful attributions? If the latter. For example. 6 Try to promote student confidence and love and enjoyment of English. and observations. memory. and controllable attributions. and attitudes to English 2 student attributions for success and failure might be different from their opinions 3 students may overestimate the effects of luck and test difficulty on their successes and failures and underestimate the effect of effort 4 students’ attributions might differ by gender and by academic discipline their behaviour conveys attributional information to students. The first eight refer to understanding attribution and the following nine to changing student attributions. and the effects can be long lasting. ask ‘Why do you think you did badly?’ Do not accept ability attributions. 7 Help students find their strengths and succeed at something. Attribution and learning English as a foreign language 191 . Give specific examples of student efforts which are connected with proficiency. always stress and model the important connection between effort and learning E F L. unstable. revising hard for tests. Students have more control over these. proficiency. for example paying attention in class. for example through more effort. 2 When you talk to students. 4 When you talk to students.Practical suggestions Below we make suggestions for EFL teachers regarding what they can do in for teachers their classrooms. 2016 5 should monitor the attributional messages they send. For example. and they Downloaded from http://eltj. after they succeed. Teachers should be aware that: 1 student attribution is common and that it may affect effort.oxfordjournals. tell them they can do better next time. Emphasizing this may be of greater relevance to male students whereas focusing on English outside school may be more necessary for science students. Point out that success and failure have alternative causes and help them focus on controllable attributions. After a failure. competing with themselves/their previous results. 5 Tell students they have some influence over their successful learning of E F L. This can help them realize they can achieve more control of their environment and their life in school and stimulate them to try hard and succeed. Students seem much less aware than teachers of this connection. Students might not realize that these influences can be overcome 8 it is necessary to ask what attributions they think their students have. aptitude. ask them ‘Why do you think you did well?’ After failures. stress internal. someone telling them something. and luck in learning E F L. ‘Consequences of Language Classroom. G. Nist. Schmidt (eds. 192 Matthew Peacock . M. Dörnyei. Cambridge: Cambridge teachers’ attributions for student failure’. We investigated student and teacher attributions and their origins and made suggestions for intervention.oxfordjournals. N. Z. Ronning. We will close with the suggestion that teachers and students should further examine attribution. D. Olejnik. and teacher training. It is important to promote teacher awareness of the existence and causes of attribution and inform them that it is possible to promote helpful attributions. it should be noted that attributions are suggestions for self-report data and not directly observable. Schraw. Z. Dörnyei and R. F. Motivation Ushioda. or their own observations. Reading Psychology Motivation. L. Finally.). Also. Our results also have implications for pre. M. E. 1994. Bruning. O’Neil and Contemporary Approach. improving learner awareness. Upper Saddle River. Questions for further research are: How does attribution affect E F L classroom behaviour and attitudes? What attributions are prevalent elsewhere? We have extended previous research and found statistically significant relationships between attribution and E F L proficiency. we believe that more in-depth student interviews would improve this research. Downloaded from http://eltj. S. 2016 Limitations of this While this research is limited to our context. Drillings (eds. Regarding the attribution/E F L proficiency connection. (Fourth edition). 1988. perhaps affecting student answers. 2001. New York: HarperCollins. M. R. Trainee teachers also need to be made aware of the root causes of E F L attributions. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. and R. and R. 22: 153–73. we found our questionnaire to be useful and our interviews delivered valuable information. J.). Educational Psychology: A attributional perspective’ in H. 1995.. 2001b. UK: Longman. P. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction Holschuh. and thus found evidence that E F L attributions are indeed part of a framework of relationships with some important factors in E F L. Dörnyei. Z. and J. Harlow.org/ at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi on March 15. R. ‘Language learning at university: and Second Language Acquisition. it could provide insights into research and attribution in other contexts. Teaching University Press. Honolulu. ‘Classroom motivation from an Borich.. 2001. Prentice Hall. S. H. someone telling them something negative (or positive). J. Schmidt (eds.). Motivation: Theory and Research. 2004. and S. 2001a. Final revised version received January 2009 References Graham. Teaching and Researching goals and emotional responses’. and learning strategy use on perceptions of future Dörnyei. 9 Help students in difficulty and encourage them to express their feelings. HI: exploring the role of motivational thinking’ in University of Hawaii Press. Motivational Strategies in the Tollefson. Hillsdale. ability. Chen. for example personal experiences such as failing. Norby. However. Z. NJ: Pearson ‘Attributions to failure: the effects of effort. gender. 8 Give students individual support and encouragement and a sense of achievement. Our questionnaires were not further research completed anonymously. and that these experiences seem to have powerful and long- lasting effects. we assumed that the direction of cause and effect was the former affecting the latter. S.and in-service teacher training. and academic discipline and connections with effort and persistence. 2001. and Teacher Education 4/3: 259–65. G. ). 1999. Newbury Park. and Research.edu. Burden. I looked up words I did not know in a dictionary/studied vocabulary I was confident during tests I competed with myself/my previous results My teacher praised/encouraged me I revised a lot for tests/studied hard in class My teacher was a good teacher I did badly in English because I was unlucky I did not enjoy English The teacher was biased against me I did not read the test questions carefully I did not study hard I had poor time management I was nervous/anxious during tests My teacher was not a good teacher I was careless during tests I lacked confidence in English The tests were difficult/too difficult Attribution and learning English as a foreign language 193 . Schmidt (eds. Appendix Attribution questionnaire items I did well in English because Downloaded from http://eltj. ‘Students’ English at the City University of Hong Kong. L2 teacher education. and attribution.hk individual in motivation theory’ in Z. E S P (English for Williams.org/ at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi on March 15. and S. Modern Language Journal 83/2: 193–201. M. His developing conceptions of themselves as language current interests include E F L theory and learners’. M. Dörnyei and R. Human Motivation: Metaphors.Weiner. B. methodology. R. CA: Sage. Burden. 1992.oxfordjournals.. specific purposes). L. Matthew Peacock teaches in the Department of Williams. 2016 I read a lot (English newspapers/books) outside class I was lucky The tests were easy I focused on English outside school I paid attention in class I watched English TV/listened to English songs outside class I asked my teacher for help sometimes I loved/was interested in English I competed hard with my classmates Outside class. 2001. Al-Baharna. and R. The author Theories. ‘Making sense of success and failure: the role of the Email: enmatt@cityu.
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