The reluctance of the British to learn a foreign language is a cause for concern. This study investigated differences in pupils' motivation for learning foreign languages in Years 7 and 9, and suggests ways in which teachers could improve their pupils' motivation.
Following a questionnaire survey and pupil interviews, the study found that motivation for learning a foreign language decreased as pupils got older. The authors also report higher levels of motivation among girls than boys and stronger motivation to learn German than French, particularly among boys. Pupils at all ability levels made little use of metacognitive strategies designed to enable them to link new knowledge with existing knowledge, to exercise choice between approaches or to evaluate their approach to learning. They did however, recognise the importance of using such strategies.
Other findings were that French was considered feminine and German masculine, it was not "cool" for boys to be seen making an effort with French and there was a tendency for boys not to try at anything that appeared to be tedious. The authors conclude with suggestions for how to improve pupil motivation.
Several specialised terms are used in this study. For definitions of these, click here.
Keywords
United Kingdom; England; Second language learning; Motivation; Gender; Girls; Boys; Learning strategies; Attitudes; Secondary schools; Pupils; Stereotypes; Self evaluation; Ability; Parents; Cognitive development
The researchers found that the pupils had:
Pupils did not consider it to be very important to learn a foreign language and did not find foreign language lessons particularly interesting or enjoyable - findings consistent with other research cited by the authors.
Pupils were well aware of their relative position in the academic 'pecking order'. This was perceived by successful pupils as being related to the amount of effort they were prepared to expend on their studies. Successful pupils claimed to enjoy learning foreign languages for their own sake and saw themselves as receiving a much higher level of parental support than low ability pupils. Low ability pupils were already in danger of falling into the trap of 'learned helplessness': "When the words are quite easy - I can do it, but if they're really hard, like - a whole sentence - I have to have help from the teacher". (Year 9, low ability pupil)
Pupils at all levels made little use of metacognitive strategies. There was little evidence of self-evaluation by any of the pupils and when there was, it tended to be teacher directed: "Our teacher gives us targets at the end of a unit - if we've done the target, [we] can tick it off which also makes you feel good". (Year 9, average ability girl)
Lower ability pupils tended to exhibit apathy towards any suggestion of independent learning: "She tells us what to do and that's it really". (Year 9, low ability girl)
The results of the questionnaire revealed several gender differences:
The interviews provided some reasons for the above findings. Both boys and girls explained that girls were more inclined to put effort into work that appeared tedious. Boys needed to find schoolwork enjoyable: "Girls just do the boring bits which boys just can’t be bothered with". (Year 9 boy)
Several of the participants explained that it was not "cool" for boys to like languages and if they did, it was not appropriate to show it: "The [boys] can do it if they put half a mind to it, but it's just they don't want teasing from the other boys". (Year 9 girl)
The authors suggest that the girls' higher degree of motivation to learn foreign languages, a finding consistent with other cited research, may be part of a more general orientation towards schoolwork.
For gender differences in preference for learning French or German, click here.
The most striking results from the questionnaire were obtained from a comparison between responses of pupils studying French and German.
Pupils studying German exhibited:
The responses to the questionnaire also highlighted gender differences amongst pupils in their preference for learning a particular foreign language. Girls perceived a higher need to learn French than German and boys rated studying German more highly than French. The boys' very low ratings for use of metacognitive strategies and self-motivation for learning French were particularly noteworthy.
During the interviews, pupils explained the boys' preference for German in terms of French being a more feminine language and German more masculine, for example: "French is the language of love and stuff". German is "the war, Hitler and all that". (Year 9 boy)
For other differences between boys' and girls' motivation towards learning foreign languages click here.
A comparison of the Year 7 and Year 9 pupil scores for the questionnaire showed that pupils' wish to identify with speakers of foreign languages, their feelings about the competence of their teachers and the perceived importance of learning a foreign language diminished as they grew older. Perceived success, perceived ability, use of metacognitive strategies and the amount of effort expended in language learning also significantly decreased over the first three years at secondary school.
Some Year 9 pupils explained how they felt about learning foreign languages during the interviews: "I just find it [German] boring - all the exercises and stuff. We need a lot of help with that. She thinks we can work it out".
"Learning the new vocab [is boring] 'cause you got to write it all out, then say it, then write it all out again".
"I probably wouldn't learn it [German] if I didn't have to".
The findings are consistent with other research cited by the authors, who suggest that the results reflect a much wider trend of a general disenchantment with secondary schooling, and decreased motivation to learn, among adolescents as they progress through school.
Based on their findings, the authors make the following suggestions for how teachers could improve pupils' motivation towards learning a foreign language:
Other suggestions made by the authors could apply to teaching and learning across the curriculum. They suggest that:
A questionnaire was administered to 228 pupils attending three schools in South-West England. The schools were: a rural Community College (1263 pupils), a large Community College (2260 pupils) in a medium-sized town and a small Community College (673 pupils) in a small town. Nine classes, three in each school, were involved: five year 7 classes (three learning French and two learning German) and four year 9 classes (two learning French and two learning German). All classes were composed of boys and girls. Two of the schools set their pupils according to ability from Year 7, the third school set from Year 9.
The questionnaire focused particularly on pupils' feelings of responsibility for their own learning, a previously relatively unexplored area of motivation which the authors refer to as agency. Other areas investigated were attitudes (their interest and enjoyment), identity (their perceived ability), and external factors such as teachers and parents. The pupils rated each item on the questionnaire using a four-point scale ranging from definitely not true to definitely true.
Twenty-four pupils were subsequently interviewed to follow up aspects of interest arising from the results of the questionnaire. The researchers analysed the quantitative findings from the questionnaires and supplemented them with extracts from the interviews.
In completing this digest, the authors began to ask the following questions about implications for practitioners:
Milton, J. & Meara, P. (1998). Are the British really bad at learning foreign languages? Language Learning Journal, 18, 68-76.
Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. S. (1986). Approaches and methods in language teaching, Cambridge: CUP.
The ERIC digest (search for digest number ED327218) outlines strategies for developing pupils' metacognitive behaviours.
For more details concerning higher order thinking skills visit:
www.teachernet.gov.uk/professionaldevelopment
/opportunities/nqt/behaviourmanagement/higherorderthinking/
Centre for information on language teaching and research
Motivation consists of a desire to learn the language and attitudes towards the learning situation. Researchers usually attempt to identify the influence of factors such as gender, age, home background and teacher competence in the motivational process.
An integrative orientation occurs when the learner is studying a language because of a wish to identify with the speakers of that language. The alternative, complementary orientation, instrumental orientation, occurs when the learner is motivated by external goals such as passing exams or financial rewards.
Agency is an internal sense of responsibility for one's own learning. This includes awareness of independent learning strategies, metacognitive awareness and metacognitive strategies.
Independent learning strategies include revising at home, and using a dictionary, a library and instructional CD ROMs etc.
Metacognitive strategies - Metacognition is defined by the ERIC digest as thinking about thinking, knowing "what we know" and "what we don't know." The basic metacognitive strategies are: connecting new information to former knowledge, selecting thinking strategies deliberately and planning, monitoring, and evaluating thinking processes. Thinking people control their own learning. They determine when it is necessary to use metacognitive strategies, select appropriate strategies to solve a problem situation and experiment with alternative solutions. They evaluate the effectiveness of the selected strategy and decide when a problem is satisfactorily solved.
Metacognitive awareness is awareness of a range of problem solving strategies, such as planning and goal setting.
Labelling theory is defined by the Collins dictionary of sociology as an analysis of the social processes involved in the social attribution ("labelling") of positive, or more commonly, negative characteristics to acts, individuals or groups. The definition is derived from H.S. Becker's view which sees acts as not naturally good or bad. Rather, normality and deviance are socially defined. Labelling theory goes beyond truisms like 'give a dog a bad name' as the concern is with the effects positive and negative labels have upon individuals' self-conceptions.
These definitions have been supplied by the digest authors for the purpose of our web site audience.