Why classroom climate matters: Exploring Japanese university students’ motivational regulation within a classroom ecology

This article reports on a study that explored Japanese university students’ evolving motivational regulation by mapping its changes over one year of their studies in a collaborative project-based learning environment. An autonomy-supportive collaborative intervention was delivered to the 19 participants with varying or no experience of communicative language teaching and study abroad. Our cluster-based analysis of multiple questionnaire responses revealed increased motivation among the participants. Three learners were selected to represent each clustering group based on the unique characteristics of their motivational trajectories over the year, which reflect the mediating impacts of their previous language learning experiences and their learning experience during the pedagogical intervention. The findings indicate that language teachers can enhance learners’ ‘motivational regulation’ by creating a supportive learning environment in the classroom.