He Yang - Language Learning Motivation and L2 Pragmatic Competence

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of completing my book is this chance to properly thank those whose contributions shaped the final result. This book started life as a Ph.D. thesis completed at the University of Aberdeen in 2018, though it has grown and changed quite a bit in several years of gestation. The thesis was supervised by Professor Robert McColl Millar, who has been a constant source of advice and encouragement and whose guidance has tremendously influenced my development as both a scholar and a human being. I could not have asked for a better supervisor.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Professor Wei Ren of Beihang University for the many conservations and discussions that helped me clarify my thoughts on various aspects of this book. His critical comments and questions always enriched my own research. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers of this book for their careful reading of my manuscript and their many insightful comments and suggestions.

I also wish to thank the students who participated in the project, and my colleagues at Xiamen University, who kindly allowed me to involve their students in the data collection process. Without their outstanding cooperation, my research for this book would not have been completed. My appreciation is also extended to Dr. Peixin Zhang, Dr. Agni Connor and Dr. Lorna Aucott for their assistance with the statistical issues in my research.

My research for this book was facilitated by several funding sources. I am greatly indebted to the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for financially supporting my doctoral study, and also to the University of Aberdeen and Xiamen University for sponsoring and financing my participant recruitment and conference trips. Attending conferences enabled me to present the findings of my research and to receive constructive feedback from scholars and colleagues. Their support is greatly appreciated.

Some of the material contained in this book has previously been published elsewhere. I would like to thank John Benjamins Publishing Company for permission to reproduce my article: Yang, H., & Ren, W. (2019). Pragmatic awareness and second language learning motivation: A mixed-methods investigation. Pragmatics & Cognition, 26(23), 447473. DOI: 10.1075/pc.19022.yan . Thanks are also due to Frontiers for: Yang, H. (2022). Second language learners competence of and beliefs about pragmatic comprehension: Insights from the Chinese EFL context. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 801315. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.801315 . My thanks go also to MDPI for: Yang, H., & Wu, X. (2022). Language learning motivation and its role in learner complaint production. Sustainability, 14, 10770. DOI: 10.3390/su141710770 .

Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my family for their unconditional love: to my parents (without your help and your dedication to Junyue, I could have never found the opportunity to engage in the project, thank you so much); to my husband, Xiaoyu, who took a long leave of absence from his work to take care of me and our son in the UK; to my son, Junyue, who constantly reminded me not to give up (thank you, my little boy, for your encouragement and for moving to the UK to be with me, even when you did not know a single English word). Without them, I could not have survived the many ups and downs of my doctoral study overseas and concentrated on my research.

Language learning motivation is very likely to influence the process and outcome of second language (L2) learning (Ellis, Understanding second language acquisition, Oxford University Press, 2015). However, to date, little research has explored the relationship between L2 motivation and pragmatic acquisition. The potential role of motivation in the acquisition of L2 pragmatic competence has been largely under-researched (Taguchi and Roever, Second language pragmatics, Oxford University Press, 2017). This book aims to explore how language learners come to know what to say to whom in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context and whether and to what extent their language learning motivation impacts their learning. This chapter concisely presents the current situation of second language (L2) pragmatics, explains the rationale of the study, introduces the research questions, and outlines the structure of the different chapters.