SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, 2011, 39(7), 879-886

Society for Personality Research

DOI 10.2224/sbp.2011.39.7.879

YOUNG STUDENTS SUCCESS AND FAILURE ATTRIBUTIONS

IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
SEHNAZ SAHINKARAKAS
Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey
The factors that affect young students successes and failures in learning a foreign language
with specific focus on the role of perceived causal attributions were examined. The content
of self-assessment papers of 52 young learners studying English was analyzed to investigate
the students success and failure attributions. It was found that both attributions were linked
mostly to internal and unstable factors, with listening to the teacher and doing homework
being the most significant. The results highlight the importance of language teachers
awareness of their students attributions.
Keywords: causal attributions, young learners, language learning/teaching.

The mutual effects of success and motivation in education have long been
of interest to educational and social psychologists and have spawned many
theoretical frameworks (Schunk, 1991; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995; Weiner,
1990). Among these, causal attribution theory, which was developed by
Weiner, has been a major research paradigm. According to proponents of causal
attribution theory, students attributions of their success and failure may change
their future expectations and thus affect their motivation. These expectations and
motivational constructs, in turn, affect their academic achievement.
Attribution theory was first proposed by Heider (1958) and developed by
Weiner (1985). Attributions refer to individuals perceptions regarding causes of
outcomes, and attribution theory is concerned with the ways individuals perceive

Sehnaz Sahinkarakas, formerly of the English Language Teaching Department, Cukurova University,
Adana, Turkey, currently in the English Language Teaching Department, Cag University, Mersin,
Turkey.
Appreciation is due to reviewers including: Qatip Arifi, South East European University, Tetovo,
Macedonia, Email: q.arifi@seeu.edu.mk
Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Sehnaz Sahinkarakas, Cemalpasa Mah. 63009
Sok, No. 19 Kat 3/6, 01120 Adana, Turkey. Email: sehnazsahin@gmail.com

879

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these causes. Weiner discusses perceived causes of success and failure within
three dimensions: locus, stability, and controllability. Locus refers to whether the
cause is internal (within the person) or external (outside the person). The stability
dimension of causality describes whether the perceived causes will remain the
same or change. Controllability explains whether the cause is controlled by the
individual.
Weiners attribution theory primarily consists of four factors that affect
motivation in education: ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck. Ability and effort
are both personal characteristics, and are thus considered internal. However,
they differ in their stability and controllability. Ability is stable and the learner
does not control it. Effort, on the other hand, is unstable and under the learners
control. Task difficulty and luck are both stable external factors, and the learner
does not exercise control over them. Weiner (1985) believes expectancy of
success is influenced by the stability of the cause. That is, it will be expected
that outcomes attributed to stable causes will be repeated with a greater degree
of certainty than outcomes attributed to unstable causes.
In accordance with the theory of causal attributions and their effects in
learning, the aim in this study was to describe the reasons behind young language
students attributions of their perceived successes and failures.
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT
This study took place at a private school that offers education to 5- to
17-year-old students. The schools language teaching policy is to help students
gain a positive attitude toward language learning and raise their awareness of
their weaknesses and strengths in language. Prompted by the idea that a students
early start to language education (foreign language in this context) offers a
longer period of learning, the school begins language education in the first grade.
Students attend 5 hours of English classes a week in the first, second, and third
grades and 7 hours of English in the fourth and fifth grades. They also attend
speaking clubs once a week outside class time.
Participants were 52 English students attending third grade between the ages
of 9 and 10. This grade was chosen because students were in the early stages of
learning a foreign language. Yet, as it was not their first year learning a foreign
language, it was possible that they had developed some conceptions. I expected
the findings of this study could help language teachers become aware of the
reasons behind their students successes and failures at an early stage, and this
would guide them in their future teaching.

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881

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Students were asked to write a self-assessment paper by the end of the first
semester, in which they reflected on the reasons for their successes and failures
in English. The papers were content analyzed to ascertain emerging concepts
related to students perceived success and failure attributions. Each paper was
read and coded twice by the researcher at different time intervals in order to
discern the consistency of the findings. Because the students were allowed to
write the self-assessment papers in their native language, the emerging categories
were then translated into English.
RESULTS
Analysis of the data revealed that, out of 52 students, 35 believed they were
successful in English whereas 17 considered themselves unsuccessful. The
perceived reasons for their successes and failures are presented in Table 1. As
seen in this table, these reasons were mostly internal attributions. In other words,
the students mostly considered themselves responsible for their successes and
failures rather than blaming external factors.
SUCCESS ATTRIBUTIONS
Analysis of the data suggested that success attributions could be grouped
by three factors: effort, interest/personal traits, and environment, with effort
being the most significant (Table 1). Under effort (an internal, unstable, and
controllable attribution), the most cited reasons, listening to the teacher and doing
their homework, were mainly related to the teacher.
Some of the students who mentioned these reasons gave further explanations
including because I listen to the teacher very carefully or because I do my
homework regularly. This may indicate the value these students place on their
teacher, as they believe they learn both from what the teacher tells them in
the classroom and what he/she gives them as tasks outside the classroom. It is
possible to include here the item participating because it refers to the classroom
activities, also designed and offered by the teacher. The other item related to
effort was studying hard, which can be explained in two ways: studying to be
successful for self-satisfaction or studying to please the teachers and parents.
The latter explanation is shown in some of the students comments in their selfassessment papers I study hard and my teacher always appreciates this, I study
hard because I love my teacher, or my mom is happy because I study hard.

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TABLE 1
STUDENTS CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS TO SUCCESS AND FAILURE

Success attributions

Failure attributions

Internal

External

Effort
listening (20)
doing homework (17)
studying hard (11)
participating (9)
Interest/Personal Traits
desire to learn English (6)
Effort
not doing homework (8)
not participating (8)
not listening (6)
not studying hard (6)
Interest/Personal Traits
fear of making mistakes (5)
embarrassment (3)
dislike of English (2)
Ability
unable to learn vocabulary (1)
bad at reading (1)

Environment
getting help from parents (6)

Environment
distracted by others (3)
previous education (3)

Note: * numbers in brackets refer to how many times they appeared in students texts.

One other emerging internal attribution, which was related to the students
interest was a desire to learn English. Although it was cited by only six students,
a desire to learn is a personal motivator, so this shows it is important for some
students to become successful.
The only external attribution was getting help from parents. Six students stated
that they were successful because of the help they received from their parents
while doing their homework or while studying. Ability, task difficulty, or luck
did not appear as causal attributions for success.
FAILURE ATTRIBUTIONS
As with success, the greatest emphasis within attributions of failure was on
effort, which is internal and unstable (Table 1). The cited reasons relating to
effort were negative versions of the same ones as those in success attributions.
Thus, lack of listening, doing homework, studying, and participating were
conceived as reasons for failure. The implication here is the same as that in
success attributions, in which the teacher plays an important role in students
success. Most of the students linked their failure to the lack of effort expended
on tasks assigned to them by their teacher. While giving their reasons for their
failures, some of these students also criticized themselves and/or set goals to

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883

achieve future success. Some of these criticisms or promises were I didnt study
hard; I wish I had, then I would be more successful, I should have done my
homework, and I promise I will listen to my teacher.
The situation is different, however, for the interest/personal traits factor. For
example, fear of making mistakes and embarrassment, regarding personal traits,
and dislike of English, regarding students interest, were cited by some students.
Some of the examples from students papers were: I am too embarrassed to
talk; how can I be successful in English? and Im afraid to make mistakes so
I dont raise my hand and I am not successful in English. Personal traits and
interest attributions can be accepted as stable, and thus not changing a lot over
time. However, considering the age of the students in this study and the reasons
they gave, it would not be wrong to believe that it is possible to build their selfconfidence and a positive attitude toward learning a foreign language, a matter to
be discussed in the following section.
Another internal factor, ability (unable to learn vocabulary and bad at reading)
cited by two students only, emerged as a failure attribution, unlike success. The
only external factor that emerged was, again, related to environment. Three
students cited that they were distracted by their peers in class and three blamed
their previous education, by claiming that because they came from a different
school, in which English was not important, they were not as competent in
English as their current peers.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The basic principle of attribution theory can be used to explain why a particular
event, state, or outcome has occurred and what the consequences of these causes
are. In educational psychology, proponents of the theory argue that students
own conceptions for success and failure determine their subsequent strivings
(Weiner, 2000). Understanding the causal attributions of students is an important
educational phenomenon that may require further investigation. This importance
gains greater weight if the focus is on the students at the initial stage of learning
a foreign language. Therefore, if the teacher begins to do so at an early stage in
the students language learning it is possible to identify students expectations of
success and motivational styles that are to be encouraged in the classroom.
This small-scale study offers some insight into the factors to which a group
of young language learners attributed their successes and failures. Internal
attributions, under effort, and in particular listening/not listening to the teacher
and doing/not doing homework, were the most significant reasons for both
success and failure mentioned by the participants. Although the attributions
were internal (their own effort), the teacher (outside effect) was the role model
for the participants. This illustrates the role that teacher quality plays in student

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achievement, especially for young learners who are in the early stages of forming
their learning experiences and who are still dependent on the teacher. This role
in foreign language teaching is even greater, as it is the teacher who provides
exposure to the language and opportunities for learning through classroom
activities. The amount and type of exposure to the target language is, however,
limited outside the classroom (Cameron, 2001).
Another point to consider is the stability dimension. As Weiner (1985, 1992)
suggests, the stability of a cause rather than its locus determines expectancy
shifts. Thus, if the presence or absence of causes are expected to remain the
same, the outcomes experienced in the past will most probably recur. In that
situation, as Weiner explains, successes can be expected to increase, and failures
to be repeated. If causal conditions, on the other hand, are likely to change, then
the present outcomes may not be repeated and subsequent outcomes may not be
certain. The findings gained in this study indicate that most of the reasons for
success and failure were unstable, and may therefore change. Effort, the most
significant unstable reason, is controlled by the learners. Awareness of this factor
will most likely affect a students future successes positively. Successful students
may exert more effort to increase their success, while unsuccessful ones may
struggle more to be successful. Even the stable reasons, like fear, embarrassment,
and dislike, can be changed if the teacher is aware of these problems and assists
students accordingly. Students who are negatively affected by their previous
language education can also overcome their problems with appropriate support.
One last implication that can be drawn from this study concerns self-efficacy,
which is defined by Bandura (1994) as peoples beliefs about their capability to
reach a certain level of achievement. Such beliefs determine how people feel,
think, and motivate themselves. According to Bandura (1991), ability attributions
are related to self-efficacy. Given that, with two exceptions, participants in this
study did not mention ability as a causal attribution, it is possible to assume
that they have not yet developed self-efficacy beliefs. As Zimmerman (1989)
emphasizes, evolving particular strategies to achieve goals on the basis of
self-efficacy beliefs is essential to self-regulated learning, leading to high
achievement and learner autonomy. Teachers should focus on this critical issue
in the classroom.
In conclusion, the scale of this study and the amount of data used are too small
to make generalizations about the findings. However, the results do confirm
the importance of teachers awareness of their students beliefs and reasons for
success and failure. As Williams and Burden (1999) indicate, teachers messages
in their classrooms regarding successful learning will have a significant influence
on the development of their students notions of themselves as learners and
their progress in learning a language. In other words, teachers shape children
just as bakers shape dough. Whatever they teach is reflected by their students,

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and sensed by those around them, just as the aroma of bread spreads while it is
cooking.
REFERENCES
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Symposium on Motivation 1990: Perspectives on motivation (pp. 69-164). Lincoln, NE:
University of Nebraska Press.
Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior
(Vol. 4, pp. 71-81). New York: Academic Press.
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University
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Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley.
Schunk, D. H. (1991). Self-efficacy and academic motivation. Educational Psychologist, 26(3/4),
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Tremblay, P. F., & Gardner, R. C. (1995). Expanding the motivation construct in language learning.
The Modern Language Journal, 79(4), 505-518.
Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. Psychological
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Weiner, B. (1990). History of motivational research in education. Journal of Educational Psychology,
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Weiner, B. (1992). Human motivation: Metaphors, theories, and research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Weiner, B. (2000). Attributional thoughts about consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Research,
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Williams, M., & Burden, R. (1999). Students developing conceptions of themselves as language
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