Abstract
The article focuses on written narratives of 51 Finnish university students who study German, Swedish or French as their major or one of their minors at an advanced level. The study aims to find what keeps these students motivated to study their L2. The data have been analyzed using analysis of narratives (Polkinghorne, 1995). Dörnyei’s (2009a, 2009b, 2014) L2 motivational self system (L2MSS), built around the concepts of ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self and L2 learning experience, is used as the theoretical framework. The results indicate that perceived social pressure (ought-to L2 self) may be important when the study decision is made, but its importance diminishes during the studies. Instead, a future L2-related vision (ideal L2 self) as well as peers, teachers, course contents, and learning atmosphere (L2 learning experience) become increasingly important during the studies. The role of the emotional dimension of possible selves seems to be central in developing and preserving study motivation. At the end of the article, some implications of the results for higher education programs of languages other than English (LOTEs) are presented.
Highlights
This article focuses on study motivation of Finnish university students who chose to study a language other than English (LOTE) as their major or one of their minors, and have reached an advanced level in their studies
The reality here and in several other countries in Europe is that many schoolchildren – and their parents – see learning LOTEs as less important than learning English
The word “advanced” in this context has two meanings. These students had studied the language before applying to the university, and had achieved the required result in the university entrance exam (CEFR-level A2-B1). They had reached an advanced level in their university studies, as they were in at least their third study year at the time of the data collection
Summary
This article focuses on study motivation of Finnish university students who chose to study a language other than English (LOTE) as their major or one of their minors, and have reached an advanced level in their studies. According to Dörnyei and Ushioda The study was initially motivated by the current language situation in Finland. As an important lingua franca (e.g., Mauranen, 2005), English is a language that more or less everyone is supposed to know (about the global situation, see Pennycook, 2017). For LOTEs the situation is very different
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