Linguistic demands of instructions: Effects on students’ expectancy-value beliefs

Language in educational contexts is characterized by complex and cognitively demanding features that can be challenging to use. Based on situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT), we assumed that these linguistic demands can lower students’ expectancies of performing well and the intrinsic value they place on tasks. This is particularly true of students with lower language abilities. Consequently, they may be less motivated to actively engage in academic tasks, potentially leading to lower academic achievement. To test this assumption, we linguistically varied an instructional statistics video into three conditions (easy, moderate, and difficult) and randomly assigned a total of 123 pre-service teachers to each condition. We measured their expectancies of success and intrinsic task value halfway through the instructional video and conducted an achievement test after the instruction. Drawing on path analysis, our results showed that different linguistic conditions had no significant effect on the students’ expectancy-value beliefs. However, we found a significant positive effect of language ability and a significant negative effect of the interaction between the linguistically difficult instruction and language ability on expectancies of success. Contrary to our expectations, this indicates that high linguistic difficulty is associated with lower expectancies of success among students with increasing language abilities. Nevertheless, this finding emphasizes the importance of considering the fit between contextual and individual features. However, it did not have an indirect effect on student achievement. The findings are further discussed, highlighting their implications for future research and delineating linguistic design in educational contexts.