Maddie MacMath
This study focused on motivation and attrition in adult ESL, primarily focusing on a level six
classroom in a Midwest community colleges ESL program. Students at the intermediate level
have significant implicit and explicit motivating factors for continuing their language study; they
also have life circumstances that compete for the same resources. By knowing and understanding
what these motivating factors are, ESL teachers can better encourage adult students in their
language study, as well as be aware of the factors that may lead to students attrition.
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Introduction
I get up earliest on Saturday mornings. In torrential rain or shine, I make the forty-five-
minute trek out to the College of DuPage (COD) for a level six ESL class that Ive been both
observing and teaching in. I have clear motivations for showing up to class; on one hand, I love
teaching and I care about the students in the class. Going makes me happy, it gives me an
intrinsic sense of fulfillment. On another hand, I do not have a choice about going if I want to
graduate from my M.A. TESOL program. My own hesitant attitude about getting up before the
sun spurred questions about each of my students: unlike me, they are not required to be here, the
class is voluntary. So, why do they show up every Saturday, giving up a significant part of their
weekend, just to improve their English? Their level six skill level means that they have
progressed beyond survival English. They may make both oral and written errors, but they are
capable of adequate communication. Instead of settling with their current skill level and letting
their English fossilize, they are choosing to learn complex grammar principles and improve their
language skill.
All this thinking prompted a hypothesis: there must be both implicit and explicit
motivation that is driving the students in this adult ESL classroom. If those factors could be
identified, they would likely hold some level of significance across the board; if we understood
more about what motivates adult ESL students, we could better tailor and develop programs that
What explicit motivating factors, such as getting a better job or going to college, do
students cite as their ultimate goal? How significant do those factors have to be to keep students
powering through multiple ESL classes, at inconvenient times and on inconvenient days?
Additionally, I asked questions related to implicit motivations: is there anything that an ESL
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teacher can do, whether in classroom activities or atmosphere, that causes the class to be so
enjoyable that students may overlook some of the more inconvenient details, like the day or
time? These questions naturally led themselves to one more category of study, prompted by my
cooperating teacher: what are the factors that lead to students attrition with English?
Methodology
limited scope of this project. Since I only focused on one classroom, the data consisted primarily
of observation, survey, and an informal teacher interview. Committed for the entire semester, I
spent the first two Saturdays entirely focused on ethnographic observation. I took detailed field
notes and kept a methodological log to generate data and formulate the research question. The
field notes were separated into sections on strict observation and personal notes, as well as a
reflective log that was updated after every class. The goal was to obtain a general sense of
atmosphere, needs, and relationships; from that, I generated formulated my question: what
motivates students to stick with an ESL program, even if the details of it are inconvenient? While
my classroom observations were not directly related to motivation, they provided background
data on the classroom and the students, as well as data that helped inform and corroborate
the students. This data formed the bulk of my findings on motivation and offered emic, student-
generated language on their reasons for being in this ESL class. The survey data consisted of
responses from fourteen students, a representative sampling of the class. Students come from
several L1 backgrounds and continents, representing Myanmar, India, China, Nigeria, Eritrea,
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Albania, Mexico, Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). My informal
interactions with the students and teacher also helped to support and provide additional language
for these findings; in fact, it was an informal conversation with the teacher that prompted the
inclusion of attrition in my research. She helped shift my focus from simply looking at the
positive aspects of motivation in adult ESL to include the attrition rate and variable factors in
attrition as well.
Since my data was only based on the specifics of one classroom, I used outside research
to support and refine my hypotheses. The goal was to generate ethnographic data that could
support the existing academic studies on motivation. In combining my own research with outside
data, I intended to apply the two in methodological, practical, and principled application and
implications.
The limitations of this project cannot be overstated and are grounded in the fact that this
was a short study, conducted with few students, in one, specific classroom. Research of adult
students in another state or country might have yielded a very different demographic, and
therefore, different data on motivation. Even within the COD classes, students at different levels
also likely experience different principles and factors in their motivation. Adult ESL cannot be
reduced to variable factors, since it deals with highly unique, individual people from various
backgrounds, life stages, and skill levels. It should also be noted that there is a margin of error in
the survey data that I collected. While these students are at an intermediate level, there is the
possibility that they did not understand every question on the survey or had trouble interpreting
However, again, the goal of this project was not to generate an end-all-be-all consensus
on why students might be motivated to learn English or what leads to ESL attrition; I wanted
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why (or why not) they stick with it. This is also why outside research data was key and aided in
the production of this report: I was able to put my findings alongside studies with prolonged
engagement, thorough interviews, and larger sample sizes. Because motivation and attrition are
foundational to studying English they are, quite literally, what keep students going and what
cause students to drop out it is key that we have an increasing understanding of what the
contributing factors are and how we should think about it, particularly in regards to adult
education.
Context
The level six classroom that I am a part of has twenty-nine students, although you would
not know that if you came right at the start of class, which begins at 8:30am on Saturday. Most
of the students trickle in closer to 9:00am; nearly every class, someone leaves early or is absent.
The class goes until 1pm, with two, ten-minute breaks. The classroom is typical of an academic
setting: individual desks are lined in rows, fluorescent lights illuminate the room, a white board
orients attention to the front of the class, and a document camera allows for varied presentation.
Consistent across all of CODs ESL classes, the curriculum is the Ventures series; our class uses
level 4, and we typically do one unit per week, to finish the book by the end of the semester. The
class does a significant amount of grammar work, typically reviewing the grammar point from
the week before and working on two new skills introduced that day.
Before analyzing the data in regards to motivation and attrition, the survey results yielded
ethnographic, contextual information about the make-up of the class. Of the fourteen students
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who responded to the survey, the class was split evenly between married and unmarried students,
7 7 7 7
The mean age of the students who were surveyed was 31.2 and the median age was 29.5. A 20-
year-old student from China was the youngest student of the class, while a 55-year-old student
20 55 31.2 29.5
Ten of the students had previous English study in their home country, while four students, from
China, Mexico, and Sudan, did not. Ranging from three months to two-years, nearly every
The more I interact with students, the more I realize they actually have good English. They wouldnt be
in this class if they just wanted to be conversational; they have to be oriented towards something else.
Motivation is the conglomeration of factors that determine and define a students desire
to learn. Why are students willing to give up half of their Saturday, every week, to sit in an early-
morning English class? Previous research has been highly focused on motivation as goals and
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reasons, while more recent studies have expanded motivation to Motivation Systems Theory
(MST), which, as one research writes, is seen as including goals, emotions, and personal agency
beliefs for individuals (Skilton-Sylvester, 2002, p. 10). Research on language learning separates
motivation is what we generally think of when we define motivation; these are the external
motivating factors, often a reward or achievement that is outside of the learner. When learning
English, this can be anything from getting a job, winning a prize, wanting a certain grade, or
earning certain feedback. Intrinsic motivations can be harder to identify, as these are the feelings
of competence and self-determination, implicit to the learner, that propel their learning. A
students natural drive, perfectionist tendencies, or enjoyment of a class would all be examples of
learn a language to meet a certain goal, while integrative motivation is more concerned with
learning a language for the sake of integration and acceptance in culture. In an ESL setting, we
Research has proven that extrinsic motivation is a powerful tool in keeping people
focused on a goal, but that implicit motivation is necessary in generating positive feelings
towards the activity itself, which often leads to stronger commitment. If students are suffering
through an early-morning, weekend English class simply to get their GED, the likelihood that
they will become frustrated or will have competing factors lead to their attrition is much higher;
there has to be something else, even if that something else is just a deep, personal delight and
satisfaction in watching their English improve. Douglas Brown (2007, p. 173) highlights this:
An unpublished study once reported an experiment in which two matched groups of junior high
school girls were asked to teach a simple game to kindergarteners. One group was promised a
reward . . . the other group received no such promise. The results showed that the latter group did
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a better job of successfully teaching and reported greater satisfaction in doing so . . . Conclusion:
The first group was too focused on the reward, and the (presumed) intrinsic motivation in the
Motivation for language learning must go beyond explicit motivation, which we see
reflected in discrepancies among variable factors related to motivation and attrition, even with a
small sample size like this one. For example, having a family can be a significant contributing
factor in ESL attrition. Finding childcare, the demands of housekeeping, or a desire to spend time
with children in the evening or on the weekend (common times for ESL classes) often leads to a
prioritization of family over learning English. However, as the survey data suggested, family can
also be a significant motivating factor in keeping up with English language study. The explicit
motivation of providing a better life for children or an increased ability to engage with them in
English leads to implicit motivation and greater feelings of satisfaction. Learning English
becomes about long-term, practical and emotional goals; Saturday mornings away from children
in the short-term will lead to deeper relationships and competence in the future. Students from
India and Myanmar wrote the following about the motivation of their children in their
Now a days you go anywhere English very necessary. So I want to improve I am going days I
I have to communicate with people and study and work. And also for my son, when he go to
When we look at motivation and attrition through the lens of identity, rather than
variables, we get a better picture as to why people choose to or not to commit to ESL classes.
The explicit motivation is not enough; it has to be supported and driven by implicit motivation.
participation in ESL class, the question is, [h]ow do the multiple identities of students, the
social contexts of their lives in the United States, and the classroom context shape their
investment in participating in adult education programs? (2002, p.10). We need to know our
students as individuals, and that includes knowing what implicit factors are driving their explicit,
on-paper goals.
observation data: the diligence of the students. Thrice in my September 23rd notes and twice on
October 7th, I recording something along the lines of: people are working very diligently . . .
most of the students are super eager to read what they got wrong on homework, to practice
speaking with me, to ask questions (October 7 observation notes). The students who are
committed to this class are driven by something deeper than merely being a server here in US
(student from Mexico), getting my GED (student from Sudan), having a career of early
childhood education (student from Mexico), or needing to study at college (student from
DRC). Statements like I want to be sure when Im speaking English (student from Nigeria) and
to make friends (student from China) get at some of this implicit, more self-driven, affective
motivation. One student from Albania summarizes it best, when he writes: I go to the english
class because, I feel good, and teacher and friend, are kind and friendly.
Its after break and half the class is missing. (September 23 observations)
The attrition rate in adult ESL is terrible, my cooperating teacher told me, after yet
another student asked to leave early for work. While the College of DuPage has a strict two-
absence policy for Saturday ESL classes, the teachers often find it hard to be so black-and-white.
What does a teacher do with a devoted student, with clear explicit and implicit motivation, who
consistently misses class for factors that are outside of their control? In both academic and
community-based adult ESL programs, this is a common problem. Classes often happen in the
evenings or on the weekends, catering to typical work-schedules. But this means that the days
and times of adult ESL classes are less than ideal; students come tired from work, annoyed at
giving up their weekend, or struggling to find childcare. As one student from Mexico wrote in
response to the prompt, the hardest thing about English class is: is the day and also the time
The phenomena of high attrition rates in adult ESL is not unusual; as Skilton-Sylvester
writes, [w]hen I was an adult ESL teacher, I was painfully aware that more than anything I had
control over in my classroom, what influenced teaching and learning the most, was whether
students were able to come to class (2002, p. 9). Sometimes, even the best explicit motivation,
supported by deep implicit motivation and a love for the class, is not enough to keep a student
committed. Sometimes, there are things that are outside of their control and teachers must be
aware of this.
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Devoted students who diligently do the homework and are attentive in class often have
excuses that are unavoidable. In the COD Level 6 class, the most significant reason for
missing class was work, with 42% of students surveyed citing that as a reason for being absent,
at least once. That number does not include the students who have missed part of a class or left
early on account of work. One student from Africa wrote: I missed class some time I have work
on Saturday some time we dont. One student who recorded work as being a problematic factor
in class attendance had asked to be excused from class not quite two-hours into the lesson
because of an unexpected order that had come up at work. Unpredictable jobs cause problems in
commitment to ESL class; often ESL students are refugees and immigrants who are working 2nd
or 3rd shift, blue collar jobs that arent always the most flexible when it comes to days or time
off. The motivation of a taking English classes to get a better job cant do much when a current
Familial or religious obligations (for example, Hindu students during Eid or Diwali,
Buddhist students when its Vesak, Yom Kippur or Hanukkah for Jewish students, or Muslim
students during Ramadan) often can be a significant factor in class absence. One student from
India noted that she missed class once, due to her daughters first hair cut ceremony. In a
culture that tends to value success, and consequently education, over most other things, including
familial identities, this can be a point of contention with teachers of multicultural students. The
United States academic schedule does not follow the same holiday patterns of other countries
and students may miss class or be absent on days that, in their home country, they would not
With the Cambodian students, Skilton-Sylvester (2002) studied how they related to their
ESL classes through other primary identities, namely wife, sister, daughter, mother, and
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worker. With attrition in adult ESL, the variable factors of life and that comprise a students
identity seem to go both ways. An identity as mother or father can prove to be both highly
motivating and a contributing factor in attrition; the same thing is true for an implicit
understanding of self as worker, student, or sibling. The variable that keeps students
motivated through multiple ESL levels can be the same factor that causes them to miss half a
semester and be forced to drop out. This is why knowing your students and getting to the root of
their explicit motivation is key; it is also why we need to design programs with the nuances and
Implications
It is less about the variables themselves and more about the identity of the student and
their interpretation of those variables. Half of the students in my class are married, half
unmarried; half of my students have children, half do not. Their countries, native languages, and
cultural backgrounds literally span the globe. There isnt some underlying factor or cultural
reason that we can point to and pin motivation and attrition on. It is complex and challenging,
because our students are complex and the life circumstances they face are challenging.
Factors that might lead to attrition can also be significant, explicit motivators, if viewed
through the right lens and given the right sort of support. For example, students noted
communication is one of their highest motivating factors, both explicit and implicitly they
enjoy feeling competent in talking with one another and people in their daily life. However, they
also mentioned communication as one of the hardest things in class. Nothing feels quite as de-
motivating and disheartening as not being able to engage with classmates or the teacher; students
struggle to come back when they are asked to complete something or produce language that they
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dont understand. By drawing on this as a motivating factor, teachers can build activities that
draw on what students already know, getting them to produce and perfect language they already
have, while scaffolding up to new vocabulary, patterns, or tenses. This is why assessment tools,
such as student portfolios, can be so valuable: they give students tangible encouragement and
ways of seeing their own progress so that, in the midst of challenging, attrition-inducing factors,
Take another example: several students noted being tired and thus missing class. These
students, who are working long hours and catering to the demands of family are understandably
exhausted. Knowing that students are coming into class weary from the week can serve a two-
fold purpose: first, it motivates the teacher to come with energy and enthusiasm, despite their
own level of exhaustion. Secondly, it should shift the content and nature of the class. Students
may struggle to sit and do worksheets in a quiet classroom if they are already at risk of falling
asleep; these factors, and how they are viewed by individual students, can help teachers better
adjust to the specific goals of each student and the needs of the classroom as a whole.
While my collection of outside data on the topics of motivation and attrition in adult ESL
yielded several quality articles, I was surprised by how minimal the scope of research is on the
topic. If we understand the weight of motivation and just how significantly it contributes to a
students fortitude in learning English, as well as the variable factors that may cause certain
students to struggle or drop out, we would be better able to tailor programs, classrooms, and
goal-driven learning for the students. It is not just about highlighting their goals and explicit
motivation, we need to understand our students identities; it is the implicit factors at work that
will drive them to master the English preposition system or learn the difference between the
For something foundational to the study of second language acquisition, I would implore
further research on the topics of motivation and attrition, but in more specific, student-driven,
these topics would enable teachers to better meet the demands of their students and work around
some of the unique challenges in adult ESL. For decades, we have known what motivation and
attrition are; now, we need to research, study, and implement the best practices for engaging
Appendix
Works Cited
Brown, Douglas H. (2007). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. White Plains, NY:
Lay Summary
Going back to school is difficult for any adult, but when that schooling is in a foreign context
and means learning a new language, the difficulties mount. Motivation, or the reasons for doing
something, is significant in the study of adult ESL; why are adults willing to study English, often
at inconvenient times and on less than ideal days, and what gives them the fortitude to stick with
it? Conversely, adult ESL also has some of the highest attrition or drop-out/absentee rates. What
are the factors that cause adults to miss, fail, or quit coming to English language classes?
What this data, corroborated by other research, has found is that motivation and attrition are less
about the motivation or attrition variables, or factors, themselves and more about their
significance to each particular student. Something could be a deeply motivating factor for
studying English or something that hinders it; it all depends on how it is perceived and
internalized by the student. This is why student identity, cultural backgrounds, and studies on
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implicit motivation are important for developing helpful, adult ESL programs that cater to the
Coding System
Classroom details: This category included all notes about the context or information related to
the classroom. Things such as layout, resources, or content were included in this category. Since
the goal of the study was to focus on the students and their motivation/attrition, information
Teacher observations: These were observations that specifically related to the teacher her
She is using the time people were talking to write on the board
Student observations: These were observations that specifically related to the students their
the class is so quiet. Even when people walked in, it was almost eerily silent.
Motivation data: While most of my specific data on motivation came from outside discussions,
research, and the survey data, this category was meant to identify parts of my observation that
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would be relevant or speak to students commitment (or lack thereof) to ESL or the particular
class. For example, breaks, boredom/diligence, late/absent/leaving were all notes that were all
I coded the data by going through my observation notes and highlighting the different features of
the notes, to make separating the context from the motivation data easier when writing the report.
Since the focus of my report was motivation and attrition data, which came primarily from
informal interactions, survey data, and outside research, I was not hyper-concerned with a
detailed coding of my observation data. Had my research focus been something that yielded
more results in my observation notes, I likely wouldve done the tedious work of transcribing
them into an electronic format for a more thorough, nuanced coding process and system. My four
categories of coding proved sufficient in separating out parts of the context that were influenced
by the teachers action, the students action, or the setting/structure of the classroom itself. This
helped me extrapolate data on motivation based on what I saw being done by the teacher and
students. As my methodological log and report both note, the emphasis with the observation data
and the formulation of the research question was emic, relevant ethnographic study. The question
on motivation came after the first two observation days, and the addition of the study of attrition
Observations
Informal Interview: Tuesday, September 19, 2017, 5:30pm, Billy Graham Center
Observation: Saturday, September 23, 2017, 8:35am-1:05pm, College of DuPage, room H1109
Document List
Methodological Log
Coding chart
Survey
Survey responses
Research report