| This dissertation includes two studies: 1) a pilot study on ESL reading motivation and reading task engagement and 2) a follow-up study on ESL motivation and task engagement. The pilot study was conducted in 2010 with eight adult ESL students in a university language program using four data sources: 1) an adapted Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997), 2) classroom observations, 3) Task Engagement Survey (Egbert, 2003), and semi-structured individual interviews. The study was intended to explore: 1) what motivates adult ESL learners to read in English, 2) what levels of reading engagement learners perceive they have during tasks that center on reading skills, and 3) what task characteristics facilitate or hinder reading engagement in English. In addition, the study also explored a model of L2 reading motivation and reading task engagement. The second study, which took place with 17 adult ESL students and a teacher in 2011, was expanded to general L2 motivation and task engagement involving all language skills and to technology enhanced language learning contexts. Additionally, the second study attempts to explore how L2 motivation and task engagement are related. |
