The analysis suggested six thematic factors as the antecedents of epistemic curiosity, three groups of underlying desires behind the manifestation of epistemic curiosity, and positive affect linked to the manifestation of epistemic curiosity. It also emerged from the analysis that certain types of classroom activities were frequently mentioned in relation to epistemic curiosity experiences. In this section, therefore, we first present the activities in order to offer a broader picture of the students’ epistemic curiosity experiences. Next, we discuss the thematic factors, linking these with the activities. Lastly, we discuss the underlying desires and the positive affect.
Activities associated with experiencing epistemic curiosity
It emerged from the survey data that certain types of activities were frequently mentioned in students’ descriptions of epistemic curiosity experiences. Table 1 lists these activities together with their representative quotations, maintaining students’ original wording. A short description of the specific tasks mentioned in the quotations are provided in the notes. As shown, the most frequently mentioned activities were oral communication activities. These activities were further categorized into two types. The first of these involved speaking with peers about given topics, sharing stories and ideas, and discussing and debating over given topics. The second type involved listening to peers who were not playing an interlocutor role but speaking to the whole class, such as when giving a presentation. The second most frequently mentioned activities were knowledge-generating activities consisting of teacher talk, lessons introducing new topics, and videos (e.g., YouTube) played to show examples of these topics. Equally frequently mentioned activities were idea-generating activities that instructed students to think about a given topic, such as their own future, hobbies, and course projects. Textbook exercises involving solving problems and completing listening quizzes were also mentioned in relation to the arousal of epistemic curiosity.
Table 1
Four Types of Activities Frequently Mentioned in Relation to Epistemic Curiosity Experiences
|
Activity type
|
FC
|
Representative quotation
|
1
|
Speaking activities
|
36
|
|
|
1–1. Exchanging stories, ideas, opinions with peers
|
29
|
I felt curious when I debate with my classmate because it challenges me and I want to share my opinions.
|
|
1–2. Listening to peers
|
7
|
I felt curious when practicing a pitcha because I want to listen what my friends going to talk about. It’s fun comparing somebody else’s ideas to your own, to see what the others are focusing on.
|
2
|
Knowledge-generating activities
|
16
|
|
|
2 − 1. Teacher talk/Lessons
|
10
|
I felt curious when I learning about meaning comparison between discussion and debate because I want to know the differently of the word.
|
|
2–2. Videos
|
6
|
I felt curious when I watching the elevator pitch video because I want to speak like that.
|
3
|
Idea-generating activities
|
12
|
I felt curious when we doing the prioritizing stuffb I was thinking about myself in the future which is real related to me and I don't really know what I want.
|
4
|
Textbook exercises
|
11
|
|
|
4 − 1. Problem solving in the text
|
8
|
I felt curious when I answer the question in the textbook correctly because I'm happy if I answer correctly.
|
|
4 − 2. Listening quiz
|
3
|
I felt curious when I don't know the meanings of some vocabs in the audio activityc because I don’t know the meaning and I want to know it for answering the problem and also I can learn new vocabs.
|
Note. FC = Frequency Counts. i.e., the number of quotations that mentioned antecedent; |
a In this activity students learned about an elevator pitch, and as the final step, each student created their own pitch about a solution to a problem/challenge about learning English and delivered it in front of their classmates. |
b This was a task in the textbook where students were given a list of job criteria (e.g., salary, location, office environment) and instructed to rank order them by importance. |
c This was a listening quiz in the textbook. Students were instructed to listen to a conversation between a college student and career adviser and choose ‘true’ or ‘false’ in response to statements about the conversation. |
In the focus group interviews, speaking activities and knowledge-generating activities commonly appeared in the students’ discussions about their epistemic curiosity experiences. Students named activities such as debates and video watching as the situations where they experienced epistemic curiosity. We present this further in the proceeding sections, together with the thematic factors identified as curiosity antecedents.
Thematic factors as the antecedents of epistemic curiosity
The analysis indicated seven thematic factors as the antecedents of epistemic curiosity, which are listed in Table 2 with representative quotations. As shown, the most frequently discussed factor was learners’ positive appraisal. Students explained that they had become curious about the learning contents that they found interesting, useful, and self-relevant. The second most frequently mentioned factor was peers. It was shown that the contents and the L2 produced by peers generated epistemic curiosity. For example, students reported they felt curious when their classmate was about to give a pitch in front of the class because they wanted to know what ideas would be pitched. In the same situation, some students reported experiencing curiosity because they wanted to study why the classmate could speak so fluently. The third factor was a cognitive puzzle, typically evoked from solving problems in the textbook that contained unknown words or newly learned target language features. Students described they wanted to figure out how to solve the quizzes in the textbook. Some students more specifically pinpointed that they felt epistemic curiosity when the class was about to check the answers in the quizzes. Novelty was identified to have played an important role in the emergence of epistemic curiosity. Students wrote they felt curious when they were presented with topics, activities, and tasks, and explained that it was because they were new. The fifth factor was comprehensibility. Being able to understand given content (e.g., videos, audio, texts) was provided as the reason to want to know more about it. Lastly, an exploration of uncertain ideas, typically initiated by tasks, was shown to be the antecedent of epistemic curiosity. Students described their epistemic curiosity arising when they were asked to think about topics that were relevant to them but that they had not yet formulated clear ideas about, such as their future plans and dream jobs.
Table 2
Thematic Factors as the Antecedents of Epistemic Curiosity
|
Factor
|
FC
|
Representative quotations
|
1
|
Positive appraisal
|
16
|
I felt curious when I learn about elevator pitch because it very interesting.
|
2
|
Peers
|
13
|
|
|
2 − 1. Contents
|
10
|
I felt curious when Before/during/after exams activitya because I’m curious what my friends are going to present.
|
|
2–2. L2
|
3
|
I felt curious when another student will speaking because I want to know how to speak fluently in English.
|
3
|
Cognitive puzzles
|
9
|
I felt curious when Unlock unit3b because I can’t remember how to use the conjunction some words + phase but some words + sentence/phase.
|
4
|
Novelty
|
7
|
I felt curious when Elevator pitch because it was a new topic to me.
|
5
|
Comprehensibility
|
4
|
I felt curious when I was watching video about 10 things we should do before examsc because the topic is not too difficult and I can understand more than 60%.
|
6
|
Exploration of the future self
|
3
|
I felt curious when I was doing the speaking task which the topic is Your Dream Jobd because I have a question with myself. There is ‘what is my dream job?, actually. I don’t even know what I want to be.
|
Note. FC = Frequency Counts. i.e., the number of quotations that mentioned antecedent. |
a This activity was to learn connecting events using time expressions (e.g., before, after). As the last stage of this activity, each student created sentences to describe what they usually do before, during, and after an examination and presented them in a group. |
b This unit introduced how to use adverbs and connectors to describe events in sequence. The class first read the explanations with example sentences. The teacher also added that certain words can only be used with noun phrases while others can be used to connect clauses. The students then completed a fill-in-the-blank exercise in the textbook. |
c This video was played as the introduction to the time expression activity discussed above. A speaker in the video talked about what students should and should not do before examinations. |
d This activity involved talking about dream jobs. Students discussed in pairs what they would like to do after graduating university. |
Underlying desires behind epistemic curiosity
The analysis suggested that there were three groups of desires that manifested themselves within individual students that lead to the emergence of epistemic curiosity, as shown in Table 3. The first was L2 related desire, further broken down into four categories. The first category was the desire for good performance, such as producing good pronunciation, L2 sentences, and grammar, and performing as well as peers. For example, students described they searched to find out what words or grammar to use in order to write good English sentences. Similarly, students explained that they felt curious about their peers’ performance, such as during presentations, because they wanted to perform as well as their peers did. The next category was the desire for L2 related knowledge, and this desire led students to become curious about two types of objects; learning materials and peers’ output. Students explained that because they wanted to gain more knowledge, they felt curious when they studied with the textbook and other learning materials such as videos, and the teacher’s PowerPoint slides. Similarly, students described that they felt curious about their peers’ L2 spoken production because they wanted to understand how the peers were speaking so fluently and learn from them, such as their word choice and grammar use. The third category was the desire for L2 improvement. Students described this desire as the reason for them to become curious when they were presented with activities or learning topics. The last category was peer admiration. Students explained that they wanted to “think like” and “become like” their peers as the reasons for them to become curious about the peers’ output. The second group was concerned with communication-related desires. Such desires included the desire to express and share feelings, opinions, and stories with peers, desire to be understood, and the purpose of choosing appropriate responses. Students described, for example, that they were curious about what their conversation partner was telling them because they wanted to respond to the partner and share their opinions. The last group related to comparison purposes, namely, students wanted to compare themselves, such as their ideas with those of others, and this generated their epistemic curiosity toward the information presented to them. For example, students reported that they were curious about what their peers shared during a debate because they wanted to know how similar or different their opinions were.
Table 3
Underlying Desires Behind the Manifestation of Epistemic Curiosity
|
Underlying desires
|
FC
|
Representative quotations
|
1
|
L2-Related desire
|
16
|
|
|
1–1. Desire for good performance
|
7
|
I felt curious when I write and present about my new innovation about use English in daily lifea because I wanna practice to present in English and use in correct grammar and good accent.
|
|
1–2. Desire for L2 related knowledge
|
5
|
I felt curious when I try to create elevator pitch because I have to find the word that I want to use in the sentence and I know some new words.
|
|
1–3. Desire for L2 improvement
|
3
|
I felt curious when the class have speaking activity because I want to make new friends and improve my English skill.
|
|
1–4. Peer admiration
|
3
|
I felt curious when Debateb because I have a chance to listen to my friends’ opinions about how they think and how each of them think differently. It helps me to think like them.
|
2
|
Communication-related desire
|
11
|
I felt curious when I do not know what my friends are saying because I want to know what my friends are saying and be able to express my feeling.
|
3
|
Comparison purpose
|
5
|
I felt curious when Debate of your choice because I want to know what other people think about the content. Are they think the same with me or not. If they has different opinion, what they are thinking.
|
Note. FC = Frequency Counts. i.e., the number of quotations that mentioned antecedent. |
a This activity was to suggest a way to improve L2 skills. Students were given preparation time to choose one aspect of L2 learning (speaking, vocabulary, etc.) and present the idea in a way that their classmates would be interested in trying. |
b The class focused on learning how to persuade people and use appropriate language for discussions, and students had debates on various topics. |
It emerged from the analysis that positive affect was frequently expressed in the description of epistemic curiosity experiences. Such affect was composed of positive emotions and liking, as shown in Table 4. Students explained that they experienced epistemic curiosity during classroom activities or while performing tasks because they felt excited, happy, or enjoyment. Similarly, liking a given topic or task was also mentioned as the reason for experiencing epistemic curiosity.
Table 4
Positive Affect Involved in Epistemic Curiosity Experiences
Positive Affect
|
FC
|
Representative quotations
|
Positive emotions
|
6
|
I felt curious when I was debate with friends because I feel excited.
|
Liking
|
5
|
I felt curious when listen the short story and answer the question because I like it
|
Note. FC = Frequency Counts. i.e., the number of quotations that mentioned antecedent. |
These elements discussed above, except for the factor, exploration of the future-self, also emerged from the analysis of group interview data. We use two excerpts to illustrate how these elements appeared in the students’ discussions. The first one, in Table 5, is from the interview session that took place after Class 7. The students all referred to one of the speaking activities, debate, that they had engaged in the class, and expressed how they experienced epistemic curiosity during this activity.
Table 5
Focus Group Interview Students’ Discussion about Their Epistemic Curiosity During Debates
Transcript
|
Emerging factor
|
G: Debate in my class was my favorite. It was fun.
Y: Me, too. I felt curious during the debate in the table.
P: [In the activity] we learned about persuasive language, and we have to debate to each other in the class, so I want to express the beautiful and perfect words to debate. And I don’t have enough knowledge to express. So I searched in the dictionary, not only the meaning of it but I also searched how to use this word in a sentence.
N: For me, I love the debate. My friend besides me, he says everything he thinks about smartphone and talk everything. I love the scene. I love the argument with my friends. Talk together. Oh it’s so much fun.
N: I felt curious to know what he said, to agree or what should I say, to persuade. I didn’t do this before. This is my first time to debate in English. It makes me curious.
T: I felt curious during debate because I really would like to know what he thinks so much, so I try to listen and feel curious about my friends’ thinking. So all of the debate makes me curious so much.
G: I love to hear other ideas and I love to share my ideas, too. I want to know others’ ideas. And I want to share mine, too.
Y: For me the activity made me curious because in our table we have to separate A and B, and I have to debate with other group, so I want to know what they come up with, so that I can debate, so I feel more curious.
|
Positive appraisal
Desire for good performance
Desire for L2 related knowledge
Positive affect
Positive affect
Positive appraisal
Peers
Communication-related desire
Novelty
Peers
Peers
Positive affect
Communication-related desire
Peers
Communication-related desire
|
Note. Alphabets are used as a replacement of the focus group interview students’ nicknames |
The discussion above captures students’ curiosity toward peers’ production, which was generated by their desire to discuss, communicate, and debate with peers. This type of desire also led a student to search for L2 words to use in her speech. Positive affect was also expressed along with the experience of epistemic curiosity.
The second excerpt in Table 6 is from the interview session held after Class 6. During that class, students watched a video in which a speaker discussed 10 things students should and should not do before the exam. The teacher played the video to make a link to the subsequent textbook exercise to learn about words to express time and sequence (e.g., before, after, while). She also believed the content could be of relevance to the students as their midterm examination was approaching. During the interview, students discussed their epistemic curiosity experiences in relation to the video and explained why they felt curious.
Table 6
Focus Group Interview Students’ Discussion about Their Epistemic Curiosity While Watching a Video
Transcript
|
Emerging factor
|
N: The video was fun.
Yeah < everyone agrees>
P: In video it presents many ways that we can learn from it and it’s concise and short. They have good present.
T: It’s a good presentation right.
Y: For me I like the content of the video because it contains the facts that I never know before and it makes me realize the points that I never think about it before.
T: For me, too. It’s useful for me too because that time is coming to me soon.
N: It’s like your opinion. I see that’s something I do but the video says we shouldn’t do.
|
Positive appraisal
Positive appraisal
Positive affect
Novelty
Positive appraisal
|
Note. Alphabets are used as a replacement of the focus group interview students’ nicknames |
The discussion above captures the students’ epistemic curiosity toward the video, of which they made positive appraisal for its usefulness, relevance, and novelty. The discussion shows that these positive appraisals were linked to the experience of epistemic curiosity.