‘People can be smarter with two languages’: changing anglophone students' attitudes to language learning through teaching linguistics

Measuring effective teaching: Student perceptions of their modern languages lessons in England

“…In the wider literature there is evidence that in England, pupil motivation is at a low ebb (Lanvers, Hultgren, & Gayton, 2019;Tinsley, 2019). In response to this trend, there has been a popular discourse in England emphasising language learning as a practical means to access future employment opportunities.…”

Measuring effective teaching: Student perceptions of their modern languages lessons in England

“…In the wider literature there is evidence that in England, pupil motivation is at a low ebb (Lanvers, Hultgren, & Gayton, 2019;Tinsley, 2019). In response to this trend, there has been a popular discourse in England emphasising language learning as a practical means to access future employment opportunities.…”

Brexit as Linguistic Symptom of Britain Retreating into its Shell? Brexit‐Induced Politicization of Language Learning

“…Therefore, we need to engage learners themselves, in discussions about language learning that focus on such utilitarian incentives for MFL, but also on developing more holistic types of motivation in learners, a principle applicable to all MFL learning. Examples of such holistic approaches to incentivize learners exist (e.g., MEITS, n.d.; Lanvers, Hultgren, & Gayton, ; Routes into Languages, n.d.). They lend themselves to application particularly to contexts where utilitarian incentives are rather poor, such as in Anglophone contexts, and focus on combatting ‘othering’ and ‘erasure’ of languages other than English in the public sphere.…”

Is English the Culprit? Longitudinal Associations Between Students’ Value Beliefs in English, German, and French in Multilingual Switzerland

“…Henry and Thorsen (2018) were able to show that students’ ideal multilingual self has an indirect positive effect on intended effort for learning French, German, or Spanish in secondary schools in Sweden. Similarly, Lanvers and colleagues (2019) found a positive effect of linguistic background when conducting an intervention study aimed at raising students’ (age 11–14) awareness of the cognitive benefits of learning multiple languages. They investigated students’ attitudes toward the subject of modern foreign languages in schools in England and Scotland and found that students with multilingual backgrounds (i.e., those whose first language was a LOTE) valued languages as a school subject more than monolingual learners and that this difference increased after the intervention.…”

“…Based on past theoretical and empirical research (Brühwiler & Le Pape Racine, 2017; Henry, 2010; Lanvers et al., 2019) suggesting that multilingual students might be more motivated to learn languages, we further investigated differences in motivational development across the three language subjects depending on whether students had grown up as monolingual or multilingual. Partially confirming our expectations, we found that multilingual students reported higher value beliefs in French and in English in Grade 9.…”

Measuring effective teaching: Student perceptions of their modern languages lessons in England

“…In the wider literature there is evidence that in England, pupil motivation is at a low ebb (Lanvers, Hultgren, & Gayton, 2019;Tinsley, 2019). In response to this trend, there has been a popular discourse in England emphasising language learning as a practical means to access future employment opportunities.…”

Brexit as Linguistic Symptom of Britain Retreating into its Shell? Brexit‐Induced Politicization of Language Learning

“…Therefore, we need to engage learners themselves, in discussions about language learning that focus on such utilitarian incentives for MFL, but also on developing more holistic types of motivation in learners, a principle applicable to all MFL learning. Examples of such holistic approaches to incentivize learners exist (e.g., MEITS, n.d.; Lanvers, Hultgren, & Gayton, ; Routes into Languages, n.d.). They lend themselves to application particularly to contexts where utilitarian incentives are rather poor, such as in Anglophone contexts, and focus on combatting ‘othering’ and ‘erasure’ of languages other than English in the public sphere.…”

Is English the Culprit? Longitudinal Associations Between Students’ Value Beliefs in English, German, and French in Multilingual Switzerland

“…Henry and Thorsen (2018) were able to show that students’ ideal multilingual self has an indirect positive effect on intended effort for learning French, German, or Spanish in secondary schools in Sweden. Similarly, Lanvers and colleagues (2019) found a positive effect of linguistic background when conducting an intervention study aimed at raising students’ (age 11–14) awareness of the cognitive benefits of learning multiple languages. They investigated students’ attitudes toward the subject of modern foreign languages in schools in England and Scotland and found that students with multilingual backgrounds (i.e., those whose first language was a LOTE) valued languages as a school subject more than monolingual learners and that this difference increased after the intervention.…”

“…Based on past theoretical and empirical research (Brühwiler & Le Pape Racine, 2017; Henry, 2010; Lanvers et al., 2019) suggesting that multilingual students might be more motivated to learn languages, we further investigated differences in motivational development across the three language subjects depending on whether students had grown up as monolingual or multilingual. Partially confirming our expectations, we found that multilingual students reported higher value beliefs in French and in English in Grade 9.…”

Measuring effective teaching: Student perceptions of their modern languages lessons in England

“…In the wider literature there is evidence that in England, pupil motivation is at a low ebb (Lanvers, Hultgren, & Gayton, 2019;Tinsley, 2019). In response to this trend, there has been a popular discourse in England emphasising language learning as a practical means to access future employment opportunities.…”

Brexit as Linguistic Symptom of Britain Retreating into its Shell? Brexit‐Induced Politicization of Language Learning

“…Therefore, we need to engage learners themselves, in discussions about language learning that focus on such utilitarian incentives for MFL, but also on developing more holistic types of motivation in learners, a principle applicable to all MFL learning. Examples of such holistic approaches to incentivize learners exist (e.g., MEITS, n.d.; Lanvers, Hultgren, & Gayton, ; Routes into Languages, n.d.). They lend themselves to application particularly to contexts where utilitarian incentives are rather poor, such as in Anglophone contexts, and focus on combatting ‘othering’ and ‘erasure’ of languages other than English in the public sphere.…”

Is English the Culprit? Longitudinal Associations Between Students’ Value Beliefs in English, German, and French in Multilingual Switzerland

“…Henry and Thorsen (2018) were able to show that students’ ideal multilingual self has an indirect positive effect on intended effort for learning French, German, or Spanish in secondary schools in Sweden. Similarly, Lanvers and colleagues (2019) found a positive effect of linguistic background when conducting an intervention study aimed at raising students’ (age 11–14) awareness of the cognitive benefits of learning multiple languages. They investigated students’ attitudes toward the subject of modern foreign languages in schools in England and Scotland and found that students with multilingual backgrounds (i.e., those whose first language was a LOTE) valued languages as a school subject more than monolingual learners and that this difference increased after the intervention.…”

“…Based on past theoretical and empirical research (Brühwiler & Le Pape Racine, 2017; Henry, 2010; Lanvers et al., 2019) suggesting that multilingual students might be more motivated to learn languages, we further investigated differences in motivational development across the three language subjects depending on whether students had grown up as monolingual or multilingual. Partially confirming our expectations, we found that multilingual students reported higher value beliefs in French and in English in Grade 9.…”