'French is the language of love and stuff': student perceptions of issues related to motivation in learning a foreign language

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Gender
Thinking skills
Modern Foreign Languages

How could teachers improve pupils' motivation?

Based on their findings, the authors make the following suggestions for how teachers could improve pupils' motivation towards learning a foreign language:

teachers should discuss with pupils the value of learning foreign languages;
teachers need to help learners develop beliefs in their own abilities to learn a language and to control the process of learning it;
more needs to be done in preventing the early sense of failure in learning foreign languages displayed by pupils of low ability; and
further investigation into learners' perceptions of different languages could conceivably lead to a reconsideration of which language to introduce first. If German or Spanish etc. were perceived by pupils, particularly boys, as more useful, interesting or easier to learn than French, then maybe schools could consider introducing these first.

Other suggestions made by the authors could apply to teaching and learning across the curriculum. They suggest that:

teachers should move towards the active development of the cognitive and metacognitive strategies necessary for learning; and
the lessons learned from labelling theory could make a significant contribution to improving pupils' motivation - pupils who are perceived by their teachers and by themselves as performing well, are more likely to enjoy the subject, find it interesting and wish to be successful at it.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction How motivated are British pupils to learning a foreign language? Are there differences in motivation between pupils of different abilities? Do boys and girls differ in their motivation to learn a foreign language? Are pupils more motivated to learn some languages than others? Are there differences in motivation between pupils of different ages? How could teachers improve pupils' motivation? How was the study designed? What are the implications of the study for schools and teachers of modern languages? Where can I find out more? Definitions of technical terms used in the study Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader 'French is the language of love and stuff': student perceptions of issues related to motivation in learning a foreign language This digest found in Gender Thinking skills Modern Foreign Languages Send to a friend Word doc 60KB Printer friendly Collate for later How could teachers improve pupils' motivation? Based on their findings, the authors make the following suggestions for how teachers could improve pupils' motivation towards learning a foreign language: teachers should discuss with pupils the value of learning foreign languages; teachers need to help learners develop beliefs in their own abilities to learn a language and to control the process of learning it; more needs to be done in preventing the early sense of failure in learning foreign languages displayed by pupils of low ability; and further investigation into learners' perceptions of different languages could conceivably lead to a reconsideration of which language to introduce first. If German or Spanish etc. were perceived by pupils, particularly boys, as more useful, interesting or easier to learn than French, then maybe schools could consider introducing these first. Other suggestions made by the authors could apply to teaching and learning across the curriculum. They suggest that: teachers should move towards the active development of the cognitive and metacognitive strategies necessary for learning; and the lessons learned from labelling theory could make a significant contribution to improving pupils' motivation - pupils who are perceived by their teachers and by themselves as performing well, are more likely to enjoy the subject, find it interesting and wish to be successful at it.