Multilingualism & Motivation in Language Classrooms in England

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although languages education in English schools has been in a difficult position since 2004, when the study of a language after the age of 14 was made optional, young people are (or can be) exposed to more languages than ever before as school populations in England become increasingly multilingual. As such, in this paper we draw on self-determination theory to measure student motivation and investigate links between motivation and students’ multilingualism. Using items drawn from established self-determination theory instruments alongside the Ungspråk questionnaire developed by Haukås et al, we conducted an online questionnaire with 422 students between the ages of 11–16 from 16 schools in a largely monolingual area of England. Between group comparisons (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests) found that students with more multilingual linguistic lives had more autonomous motivation and more positive beliefs about languages, but that other characteristic such as gender and school year had little impact.