In this study, the authors investigated the attitudes of Japanese junior high school students towards studying English from the perspective of the Self-worth Theory. A total of 383 students aged 12 to 15 years participated in the qualitative study. Students were required to write three essays about how they would react under hypothetical circumstances in which their feelings of self-worth might be threatened. The contents of the students’ essays were analysed and matched with mechanisms within the quadrants of Covington’s Quadripolar Model of Achievement Motivation. Overall, the results suggested that the adolescents appeared to show traits of low defensive pessimism, high self-handicapping, and high helplessness, placing the students on the borderline of the Self-protectors and the Failure Acceptors. Reasons for the findings and pedagogical implications will be discussed.

在这项研究中，作者从自我价值理论的角度调查了日本初中生对学习英语的态度。共有 383 名 12 至 15 岁的学生参加了定性研究。学生被要求写三篇关于他们在自我价值感可能受到威胁的假设情况下如何反应的文章。对学生论文的内容进行了分析，并与科文顿的成就动机四极模型象限内的机制相匹配。总体而言，结果表明，青少年似乎表现出低防御性悲观主义、高自我阻碍和高无助的特征，使学生处于自我保护者和失败接受者的边缘。