Interaction Effect of Task Demands and Goal Orientations on Language Learners' Perceptions of Task Difficulty and Motivation

Abstract

Task-based research has eclipsed the role of individual differences (IDs) in the evaluation of task difficulty and task motivation for reasons related to pedagogically-driven quests to design task impervious to variation. The present article underscores the ID variable of goal orientation which may advance our understanding of some aspects of variation related to task engagement. After implementing one goal-elicitation questionnaire and another questionnaire to measure difficulty and motivation following the performance of assigned narrative tasks, psychometric results revealed two distinct goal orientation levels echoing two significantly different response types to task difficulty and motivation. Whereas one goal group responded positively to unfamiliar and taxing tasks, the other goal group did not. Overall, this article points to the need to rethink the reductionist research agenda that confines task variation to task sequencing conditions and task design features.