This article was originally published in the Selected Papers section of the 2024 Postconference Publication (PCP), Moving JALT Into the Future: Opportunity, Diversity, and Excellence. The PCP publishes papers based on presentations given at the JALT International Conference, and the Selected Papers section highlights a small number of papers of exceptional quality that have been first suggested by the editorial staff and then vetted by the JALTPublications Board through a blind review process. We feel that papers like this one represent some of the best work that the JALT Conference and the PCP have to offer, and encourage interested readers to check out other selected papers at https://jalt-publications.org/proceedings.
Reference Data:
Birdsell, B. J. (2025). Basic psychological needs and creativity in an EFL context. In B. Lacy, M. Swanson, & R. P. Lege (Eds.), Moving JALT into the Future: Opportunity, Diversity, and Excellence. JALT.
Basic psychological needs (BPNs) have the potential to improve student motivation, learning outcomes, and well-being. These needs include the three established needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, alongside the more recently proposed candidate need for novelty. This study explores students’ satisfaction and frustration of these needs in an EFL context and how they may predict learner engagement and creative potential in a foreign language. BPNs and engagement were measured using a 34-item questionnaire, and creative potential was measured using divergent, convergent, and metaphorical thinking tasks. Results from regression analyses showed that autonomy, competence, and novelty satisfaction predicted learner engagement, whereas autonomy and competence frustration predicted learner disengagement. As for creativity, although divergent and metaphorical thinking showed significant correlations, the BPNs did not reveal a statistically significant model for creative potential.
基本的心理欲求(BPNs) は、学生のモチベーション、学習成果、ウェルビーイングを向上させる可能性がある。BPNsには、自律性、有能感、関係性という従来から確立されている三つの欲求に加え、近年提案された新たな候補欲求である新規性が含まれる。本研究では、EFL環境におけるこれらのBPNsの満足と不満、そしてBPNsが英語学習者の学習意欲および創造的可能性をどのように予測するかを探る。BPNsと学習意欲は34項目の質問票を用いて測定され、創造的可能性は、発散的思考課題、収束的思考課題、メタファー思考課題を用いて測定された。回帰分析の結果、自律性、有能性、新奇性の満足度は学習意欲を予測し、自律性と有能性の不満は学習者の意欲低下を予測した。創造性に関しては、発散的思考とメタファー思考が有意な相関を示したが、BPNsは創造的可能性を予測する統計的に有意なモデルとはならなかった。
