Motivation, Ethnic Identity, and Post-Secondary Education Language Choices of Graduates of Intensive French Language Programs

Abstract

This study investigates the motivation for learning French, the ethnic identities, and the decision to pursue post-secondary education in French of anglophone graduates of intensive French language programs in high school. Sixty-two graduates of either French immersion, Advanced Placement French, or the International Baccalaureate French program enrolled at an English-language post-secondary institution and 29 graduates of the same programs enrolled at a French-language facility completed a questionnaire including the Situated Ethnic Identity Scale (Noels, Saumure, Pino, Clément, & MacIntyre, 2006), the Language Learning Orientation Scale (Noels, Pelletier, Clément, & Vallerand, 2000), and a language use index. Results provided some evidence that students in the francophone institution were motivated to learn French for more self-determined reasons and that they also felt more strongly francophone and less strongly anglophone in some situations.