In this study, the authors investigated the attitudes of Japanese junior high school students towards studying English from the perspective of the Self-worth Theory. A total of 383 students aged 12 to 15 years participated in the qualitative study. Students were required to write three essays about how they would react under hypothetical circumstances in which their feelings of self-worth might be threatened. The contents of the students' essays were analysed and matched with mechanisms within the quadrants of Covington's Quadripolar Model of Achievement Motivation. Overall, the results suggested that the adolescents appeared to show traits of low defensive pessimism, high self-handicapping, and high helplessness, placing the students on the borderline of the Self-protectors and the Failure Acceptors. Reasons for the findings and pedagogical implications will be discussed.