The Effects of Goal Type, Learning Interest, and Task Difficulty on Learning English Words

Pengcheng Zhang, Zhe Wang, Olusola Adesope

Abstract


Within the past few decades, goal-setting research has emerged as a prominent approach to motivation.  However, little is known about the relationship among goal types, learning interest, and task difficulty.  Using a 3 x 4 x 3 mixed experimental design, one hundred middle school students with different levels of learning interest (strong, moderate, and weak) in the present study were asked to learn English words of different levels of difficulty (high, medium, and low) under the context of different goal types (mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance).  Our results mainly showed that: (a) the main effects of learning interest, goal types, and task difficulty on performance were all significant; and (b) the interaction between goal type and task difficulty on performance was significant.  Important educational implications are discussed as well as limitations and future directions.


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