Looking back, looking forward, living in the moment: understanding the individual temporal perspectives of secondary school EFL learners

Abstract

ABSTRACTEvery individual has a different perspective on time, known as ‘temporal perspective’. A person’s orientation and attitude towards time can have a profound effect on their behaviour and motivation. In Second Language Acquisition, a variety of work has considered learners and their behaviours from various temporal perspectives. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been hardly any research explicitly examining the temporal perspectives of language learners. Given the profound effect these perspectives may have on how learners engage with present learning experiences, interpret their pasts, set goals and are motivated, we consider it important to introduce this variable into understandings of language learner psychology, especially in regard to discussions of learner motivation. In this study, we report on a questionnaire designed to capture the time orientations and attitudes of EFL learners towards their English language learning. Data were collected with secondary school pupils in Austria and Croatia and reveal some of the variations in two key dimensions of temporal perspectives as well as the need for domain-specific considerations in this area. The paper closes with a discussion of the implications of the study’s findings for pedagogical practice and future research.