This article reports on an investigation into the motivation of secondary school students in the South-west of England to learn foreign languages. A questionnaire was constructed based on a model derived from the motivation literature to examine students' responses on 16 constructs related to motivation. This was administered to 228 students in years 7, 8 and 9. The analysis revealed a decrease in motivation with age, and higher level of motivation among girls than boys. It also revealed a strikingly higher motivation to learn German than French, which was even more marked when the boys only were considered. These ndings were further investigated using interviews. Both girls and boys were able to provide clear explanations for differences between the genders, as well as for the language differences. These included such aspects as French being considered feminine, it not being 'cool' for boys to be seen to make an effort at French, and the tendency for boys not to try at anything that appears to be tedious.
a b s t r a c tThis article develops a new language learning motivation model, which is, like the currently dominant model by D€ ornyei, based on Higgins' (1987) Self Discrepancy Theory. Increasing evidence of 'non-fit' of D€ ornyei's model, especially (but not solely) from language learners with English as a first language, let to the author revisiting Higgins' original, which had more complex delineation of different Selves that adopted by D€ ornyei. After critically reviewing the body of literature suggesting 'non-fit' of D€ ornyei's model, a model with Higgins' original delineations of Selves is proposed and adapted to the language learning context, and then applied on novel data from two different learner groups with English as first language: mature university and adolescent school students. The proposed Self Discrepancy Model for Language Learners contributes to solutions of several problems raised in current discussion of language learner motivation: it provides a better fit of data seemingly incompatible with D€ ornyei's model, especially a learner type labelled 'rebellious', offers a better embedding of a range of contextual influences on motivation, and facilitates developmental perspectives on language learner motivation. The empirical data delivers on the first two goals, and offers pathways regarding the last.
Britain's already poor record for language learning might be exacerbated by the Global English phenomenon, in that utilitarian reasons for learning languages other than English are increasingly undermined (Lanvers, 2014;Lo Bianco, 2014). This article offers a state-of-the-art review of UK research on second language (L2) learning motivation and attitude. The introduction is dedicated to a review of language education policy and numerical evidence on the decline in language learning. Part I reviews UK motivational literature under the headings Primary school; Secondary school; University and beyond; Teachers, parents, milieu. The evaluation of the literature reveals some striking lacunae, as well as a misfit between common explanations of the UK's language learning crisis and the social divide between those who choose to learn languages and those who do not. A motivation-in-context understanding of UK language learning needs to account for the many contradictory Other influences impacting on learner motivation. Therefore, Part II presents a new motivational model, based on Higgins's Self-Discrepancy Theory, a model which includes multifaceted Others as well as Own selves, including that of resistance/rebellion against Others.
This study approaches switching in bilingual infants from a developmental perspective, using a micro-focus of conversation-analysis. Early switching data of two bilingual children(age 1;6 to 2;11) is analyzed in terms of pragmatic choices and constraints, and it is argued that, whilst some adult-like socially-determined switching could be observed at a very early age, the most frequently observed early switches were explained in terms of the child's psycho-social and linguistic development, in particular switching for emphasis and appeal and switching due to vocabulary gaps. The results are interpreted within a developmental perspective on codeswitching, and as such bridge an identified gap in the field of infant bilingualism between structural analyses of language alternations in bilingual infants on the one hand, and switching in older bilinguals on the other.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.