What is the individual and joint impact of nationality, gender, discipline, and year of study on students’ motivation and anxiety in Dutch EMI settings?
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2023-06-29
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en
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The current study investigated the individual and joint impact of nationality, gender, discipline and year of study on motivation and anxiety levels of Bachelor students enrolled in two English-taught study-programs, namely Psychology and Biology, in the Netherlands. Qualitative analyses were also conducted to identify factors motivating students to enroll in these programs as well as the aspects that potentially cause them to feel stressed. To measure the impact of those four variables on motivation and anxiety, 29 items were used, and students had to indicate the degree of their agreement/disagreement by means of a 7-point Likert scale. An Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted on both variables and weighted scores were calculated for each factor. Then, the final step was the calculation of a composite score for motivation and anxiety, which stemmed from summing the weighted scores. Results indicated that there was no significant main or interaction effect on either variable, with students identifying enhanced employability prospects and improvement of their English language levels as primary motivating factors. Regarding anxiety, they mentioned their own and their teachers’ inadequate language proficiency as factors causing anxiety, while a significant proportion of students reported having no difficulties. The implications of the study have an increased practical value for research in the field of EMI, through the introduction of a novel research design and statistical treatments, calling for further research to ascertain their validity.
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