Exploring the Development of ‘Interest’ in Learning English as a Foreign/Second Language

Abstract

The paper proposes a new conceptual perspective for understanding students’ engagement in L2 learning, in particular the concept of interest development in learning English. It investigates situational features that trigger interest in learning English, employing data from interviews with non-native English speaking students studying in TESOL programmes. Students were invited to reflect on critical moments which triggered their interest in learning English. These events were discussed in terms of three temporal stages: sources of interest in early years (primary), in teenaged years (secondary) and in adulthood (university and work). The findings show that what triggers interest is not just the ability to imagine and predict the vision of the future but the reimagining or revisioning of the past or one’s ability to postdict the past event in accordance with the present experience. It is not just the value of English (i.e. a property of topic or topic interest) per se that triggers interest but how its value is presented and experienced. For interest to be triggered, English must be presented or experienced in such a way that it creates surprise, unexpectedness, and encourages post-hoc understanding of the importance of English and one’s past interaction with English.

Experiencias en el aprendizaje del inglés en la educación superior

“…En los hallazgos de los artículos analizados se encontraron experiencias positivas y negativas en el aprendizaje de la LE. Ambos tipos de experiencias están relacionados con el contexto institucional (Debreli, 2016;Herrera, 2012;Ho et al, 2004;Rowland, 2011;Sawir, 2005;Tin, 2013) o con el contexto local (Sawir, 2005;Tin, 2013). Los hallazgos se presentan por temáticas en orden cronológico descendente.…”

60-72 Aylık Çocukların Yabancı Dillere Karşı İlgilerinin Çeşitli Değişkenlere Göre Farklılaşmasının İncelenmesi

“…Bazı araştırmalar anne-baba yabancı dil düzeyini birlikte ele alarak araştırma planlamışlardır. Bu araştırmalarda da benzer bulgular ortaya çıkmıştır (Ekizoğlu ve Ekizoğlu, 2011;Koenig, 2012;Tin, 2013). Bu durumda, aynı babanın yabancı dil bilgi düzeyinde olduğu gibi annenin de yabancı dil bilgi dü-zeyinin artması ile çocuğun yabancı dil öğrenmeye ilgisinin arttığı ve böylece yabancı dilli öğrenme becerisinin geliştiği ifade edilebilir.…”

Exploring the implementation of FonF tasks from learners’ perspective: a study on young learners

“…Motivation as a psychological construct came under close examination since it was believed that it could improve our understanding of the learning process by shedding light on the affective as well as cognitive aspects of learning such as learners' thoughts and attributions or the situationspecific factors like the effect of environment in which learning takes place. However, Tin (2013) commented that the notion of motivation no longer satisfactorily explains learning English in various contexts. Instead, she proposed the concept of interest as a subcomponent of the term 'motivation' which can be "a pedagogically valuable alternative lens that could enrich our understanding of students who have studied English as a formal school subject and have developed an interest in learning English as a foreign/ second language" (Tin 2013, p. 130).…”