Abstract
This paper investigates the motivation for Japanese language learning of students at Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology (TNI), a university that emphasizes Japanese cultural aspects as part of its higher education mission. The research used a questionnaire adapted from previous research to measure the motivation of 968 students from three faculties who were studying Japanese as a compulsory subject. The research divides the students into top and bottom groups based on their grades and compares their motivation levels using descriptive statistics and t-tests. The paper identifies four groups of items related to different aspects of motivation, such as entertainment, culture, knowledge, curiosity, work, and influence from others. The research findings indicate that the top group has significantly higher motivation than the bottom group in most items, except for those related to entertainment and culture, which show ceiling effects in both groups. The paper suggests that the top group corresponds to the “Integration Regulation” stage of the Organismic Integration Theory, where students internalize their motivation for Japanese language learning. The paper also discusses the limitations of the questionnaire and the need for a new scale to measure motivation in the context of the Japanese cultural boom in Thailand.
