Student Perceptions of a Speaking Course Enhanced by Extensive Reading within a Self-Determination Theory Framework

This study examines a potential tension in the application of self-determination theory to an extensive reading-enhanced speaking course in an English-as-a-foreign-language context. Although extensive reading is widely assumed to foster autonomous motivation by satisfying learners’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, its implementation within formal instructional settings often involves mandatory reading quotas and graded components that may introduce controlling pressures. Drawing on data from 142 Japanese university English majors enrolled in a year-long extensive reading-integrated speaking course, this study investigated changes in motivational regulation and basic psychological needs satisfaction using Bayesian analyses. Results revealed strong evidence for increases in all three basic psychological needs, suggesting that the course provided a need-supportive learning environment. However, these gains were not accompanied by corresponding increases in autonomous motivation. Intrinsic motivation remained stable, whereas identified regulation showed strong evidence of a decrease. External and introjected regulations showed no meaningful change. Correlational analyses further indicated that increases in basic psychological needs satisfaction were not positively associated with increases in autonomous motivation, suggesting a potential discontinuity in the internalization process. These findings suggest conditions under which self-determination theory-based explanations may not fully apply in classroom-based language learning. Even when psychological needs are satisfied, contextual constraints embedded in a structured speaking course, such as grading requirements and mandatory reading targets, may offset the expected shift toward more self-determined forms of motivation. Implications for extensive reading implementation within integrated English-as-a-foreign-language speaking courses and self-determination theory-based motivational theory in structured educational contexts are discussed.