Based on the findings of the present study, the author herself has some recommendations for the future research studies.
First, more replications of the present study using a larger sample of Chinese students are needed so that random sampling can be used in research sample selection process. The present study used the researcher’s personal network to gain volunteer friends to participate in the research may have caused the group to be homogeneous, and therefore, may cause the lack of significant differences in the analyses.
strategies of second language acquisition are suggested to apply a diversity of more refined instruments since this study concentrated on three motivational variables. The attitudinal measures are needed to be employed in the future attitude and motivation study. In terms of language learning strategy, there might be some strategies that are not included in the SILL questionnaire, so other forms of instruments, namely, interview about the learning strategies, are advised to use. Hence, it is recommended that other attitudes/motivation measures and language learning strategy measures in further studies are applied, and many researchers continue working on better measurements measurement to qualify complex variables of attitudes/motivation and language learning strategy.
Third, further research should be conducted on both old and young Chinese students. The small sample of the young adult Chinese ESL learners can not represent all the Chinese learners’ characteristics. Also, it should be realized that different ethnic groups may provide different conclusions. Thus, it must take ethnicity into consideration when making conclusions regarding the effects of attitudes/motivation and language learning strategies on ESL learning performance.
Finally, instead of participants’ self-rating of the English proficiency or macro-skills, a standardized and validated test of English language is suggested to be used as the English language assessment in future research studies, as the standardized English test can show better values of reliability and validity of the research study results (Cahill, 1979).
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