Abstract Self-determination Theory (SDT) has been applied to a great extent to investigate motivation among students in the context of language learning. In Vietnam, however, understanding of motivation to learn English as a foreign language from an SDT view-point is limited and is usually confined to university students. Thus, the purpose of the present study is to examine types of L2 motivation in Vietnamese secondary learners. Forty five students (15 - 17 years old) from a secondary school in Hanoi, Viet Nam took part in the quantitative study, where SDT-L2 was used to assess different types of regulation as well as broad motivational orientations. The findings indicate that for secondary students, external regulation was the most prominent one, but reasons to learn English were both driven by autonomous and controlled motivation. In conclusion, this study offers some insight into the motive profiles of secondary students in Vietnam learning English, with implications for future research and pedagogical applications.
MAI LINH LE (Wed,) studied this question.