Language learning among higher education students: an analysis on motivation

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/realia.32.27546

Keywords:

motivation, survey, language learning, second language, university education

Abstract

Intrinsic motivation in language learning is ideal to attain successful foreign language learning according to experts (Del Castillo, 2010; Gilakjani et al.,2010). In order to measure its impact at university level, this paper shows the results of a quantitative study conducted at KU Leuven during the academic year 2021-2022 on motivation in foreign language learning. A total of 479 students participated in a survey designed for this purpose. The methodology was based on a multivariate analysis using the statistical package SPSS v. 25. The research findings show that university students have essentially instrumental motivation for learning foreign languages (FL), which implies that their desire to acquire a second language (L2) is limited to practical purposes. On the other hand, the study has identified a representative segment of students, referred to as “incidental students”, who are characterised by not having any clear motivation (neither instrumental nor integrative) for FL. The results lead to recommendations for curricular adaptation to enhance intrinsic motivation in foreign language teaching and learning at university level.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

María Luisa Rodríguez Muñoz, Universidad de Córdoba

Her research career is strongly conditioned by her academic training in translation and interpreting and her professional experience in interculturality and sworn translation. After completing her undergraduate studies in Translation and Interpreting in Granada, she continued her training with a postgraduate degree in Immigration Law and a Master’s degree in Research in Specialised Translation and Interpreting at the University of Malaga. She obtained her PhD at the University of Córdoba in 2014 with the dissertation Interamericana: la traducción al inglés de Pantaleón y las visitadoras . She began her teaching work in 2008 as a PSI lecturer at the Pablo de Olavide University and, later, in 2009, She continued it at the University of Cordoba where she currently works as a PAD (accredited to PCD by DEVA). Since then, she has attended and participated as a speaker in numerous academic courses and conferences on her main research lines: Inter-American literature, intercultural translation, translation and gender and didactics of sworn translation. She published several papers on translation analysis and literature and reviews in scientific journals, some of them indexed in WoS, Scopus and SJR, notably Asparkía , Lebende Sprachen , Hikma  and CTTL  and she is the chief editor of scienfic journal Alfinge. Revista de Filología , indexed in MIAR (6.5) and assistant editor of scientific journal Panace@ , indexed in SJR (Q3) and Scopus. She has also published book chapters in Dykinson, Comares, Peter Lang, Narr, McGraw Hill, among others, and 1 monograph in Sindéresis. For further information, see: https://scholar.google.cl/citations?user=rPI6DfoAAAAJ&hl=es&oi=ao

Jesús Claudio Pérez Gálvez, Universidad de Córdoba

Jesús Claudio Pérez Gálvez is an associate professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Córdoba, Spain. He holds a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Cordoba (1992), a postgraduate degree in Economic-Financial Management from the Centre for Financial Studies in Madrid (1996) and a PhD in Economics from the University of Cordoba (2009).   He has written more than 60 articles that have been published in different academic journals related to tourism and he is the author of 2 books. He has been the PI of 2 projects that have been supported by public and private organisations.   His areas of expertise are as follows: advice on the development of instruments for data collection; legal aspects, plagiarism and APA regulations; design of preliminary research projects for validation; design of questionnaires; support for publication requirements; personalised information; academic writing and database management; academic writing styles; database creation; statistical treatment of surveys, reliability and validity; information search tools.   For research topics, projects and publications, see:  https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=lY-2GDAAAAAJ&hl=e    

Kris Buyse, KU Leuven

Kris Buyse is full professor at KU Leuven and teaches Spanish and Foreign Language Teaching at the Leuven Language Institute (ILT) and the Faculty of Arts (Antwerp, Leuven, and Kortrijk). At the ILT he coordinates the research activities and is responsible for Spanish for Specific Purposes (Economical and Medical). At the Faculty of Arts he is responsible for the Master of Teaching in Spanish and co-responsible for the Master of Teaching in Languages in general. He also coordinates, along with Isabelle Delaere, the interdisciplinary Centre for Applied Language Research. Outside KU Leuven, Kris is a member of the research groups LAELE (Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza de Lenguas Extranjeras) and REALL (Research in Affective Language Learning) at Universidad Nebrija (Madrid) and Universidad de Huelva, respectively. His publications and lectures are on the output and/of discussion of corpus based research in (or at the crossroads of) the following areas: language didactics and acquisition(particularly vocabulary, writing skills, pronunciation, feedback, motivation and affectivity, assessment), Corpus Linguistics, Lexicography, Contrastive Linguistics, LSP –particulary economic and medical-, CALL, Spanish as a Foreign Language, Heritage Learning and Translation Studies. He was (co)director of more than ten doctoral thesis, as well as several other national and international projects, such as ElektraVoc, UrgentiAS, Aprescrilov, Emilia and MusicLang. He has (co)authored a series of text books resulting from those projects, such as PortaVoces, Basisuitspraak Spaans and Campus Sur, edited by European Publishers. He is reviews editor of ITL-International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Benjamins) and member of the editorial committee of several journals, including the Journal of Spanish Language Teaching (Taylor & Francis) and the recently created TEISEL (Tecnologías para la investigación en segundas lenguas). For research topics, projects and publications,  see  https://www.kuleuven.be/wieiswie/nl/person/00012653

References

Adachi, R. (2015). Motivation and communicative attitudes among Japanese EFL pupils.Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5(1), 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v5i1.824

Bañuelos-Márquez, A. M. (1990). Motivación Escolar: una propuesta didáctica. Perfiles Educativos(49-50), 56–63. Retrieved from https://www.iisue.unam.mx/perfiles/ descargas/pdf/1990-49-50-56-63

Boo, Z., Dörnyei, Z., & Ryan, S. (2015). L2 motivation research 2005-2014: Understanding a publication surge and a changing landscape. System, 55, 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.10.006

Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of Capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education ( (pp. 241–258). Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching. London: Addison Wesley Longman.

Busse, V., & Walter, C. (2013). Foreign Language Learning Motivation in Higher Education: A Longitudinal Study of Motivational Changes and Their Causes. The Modern Language Journal, 97 (2), 435–456. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2013.12004.x

Buyse, K., Barrientos-Báez, A., & Sánchez-Verdejo, F. J. (2019). Comunicación Interna en el área turística: el caso del Departamento de Lingüística Aplicada en la Universidad de Leuven (Bélgica). In V. Rodríguez-Breijo et al. (Eds.), Las nuevas narrativas en el entorno social (pp. 593–604). La Laguna (España): Sociedad Latina de Comunicación Social. https://doi.org/10.4185/CAC159

Chávez-Zambano, M., Saltos-Vivas, M. A., & Saltos-Dueñas, C. M. (2017). La importancia del aprendizaje y conocimiento del idioma inglés en la enseñanza superior. Dominio de las Ciencias, 3(3), 759–771. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/6234740.pdf

Cotterall, S. (1999). Key variables in language learning: what do learners believe about them? System, 27 (4), 493–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0346-251X(99)00047-0

Del-Castillo, Y. E. (2010). La motivación en el estudiante no universitario en el aprendizaje de inglés. META 2021. Congreso Iberoamericano de Educación. Retrieved from https:// www.adeepra.org.ar/congresos/Congreso%20IBEROAMERICANO/ACCESO/R0862
_DelCastillo.pdf

de Sousa, L., Costa, P. D. M. D., Flisi, S., & Calvo, E. S. (2015). JRC Science and Policy Report: Languages and Employability. https://dx.doi.org/10.2788/504155

Dolnicar, S. (2002). A review of data-driven market segmentation in tourism. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 12(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1300/J073v12n01_01

Dörnyei, Z. (1998). Motivation in second and foreign language learning. Language Teaching, 31(3), 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026144480001315X

Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The Psychology of the Language Learner Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410613349

Dörnyei, Z., Macintyre, P. D., & Henry, A. (Eds.). (2014). Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783092574

Dörnyei, Z., Muir, C., & Ibrahim, Z. (2014). Directed motivational currents: energising language learning by creating intense motivational pathways. In D. Lasagabaster, A. Doiz, & J. M. Sierra (Eds.), Morivation and Foreign Language Learning. From theory to practice (pp. 9–29). USA: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Dörnyei, Z., & Taguchi, T. (2009). Questionnaires in Second Language Research Construction, Administration, and Processing. New York (USA): Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/ 9780203864739

EC. (2009). Anticiper les compétences requises et adapter l’offre de compétences aux besoins du marché du travail. Office des publications de l’Union Européenne. Retrieved from https://op.europa.eu/fr/publication-detail/-/publication/85bf8351-e29b-4551-b938
-a666d6862b34/language-fr

EU. (2018). Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on key competences for lifelong learning (Text with EEA relevance) (2018/C 189/01). Retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/ legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32018H0604(01)

Fielden-Burns, L. V., & Rico-Garcia, M. (2017). Comparative Language Learning Beliefs: Why Aptitude Matters. Studies in Linguistics and Literature, 1(2), 129–141. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.22158/sll.v1n2p129

Finn, M., Elliott-White, M., & Walton, M. (2000). Tourism and leisure research methods: data collection, analysis and interpretation. New York (USA): Pearson Education.

Franco, C. (2006). La relación lengua-cultura en el aprendizaje de ELE por parte de los italianófonos. In C. de-la Hoz (Ed.), La competencia pragmátic y la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera. Actas del XVI Congreso Internacional de ASELE (pp. 279–288). Retrieved from https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/2154265.pdf

Gal, S. (2012). Sociolinguistic Regimes and the Management of ”Diversity”. In A. Duchêne & M. Heller (Eds.), Language in Late Capitalism (pp. 22–42). New York: Routledge. Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1972). Attitudes and Motivation in Second-Language Learning. Newbury House Publisher.

Gilakjani, A. P., Leong, L. M., & Sabouri, N. B. (2012). A Study on the Role of Motivation in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science,7 , 9–16. Retrieved from https://www.mecs-press.org/ijmecs/ijmecs-v4-n7/IJMECS-V4
-N7-2.pdf

Gonzalez, R. D. (2010). Motivational Orientation in Foreign Language Learning: The Case of Filipino Foreign Language Learners. SSRN Electronic Journal, 3(1), 3–28.

Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, H. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2010). Multivariate Data Analysis (and others, Ed.). Prentice Hall.
Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. Pearson Education.

Heider, E. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/10628-000

Huguet, A., & Janés, J. (2008). Mother Tongue as a Determining Variable in Language Attitudes. The Case of Immigrant Latin American Students in Spain. Language and Intercultural Communication, 8(4), 246–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708470802303082

Hussain, Z., & Masum, J. (2016). Motivation of Bangladeshi Higher Secondary Students in Learning English Language. Language in India, 16(2), 177–189.

Kaneko, E., & Kawaguchi, T. (2010). Report on an Initial Study of Motivation for Learning English: A Case Study of Future Information and Communication Technology Professionals. IEEE International Professional Comunication Conference (pp. 315–320). Netherlands: Enschede. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.2010.5530029

Kikuchi, K., & Sakai, H. (2009). Japanese Learners’ Demotivation to Study English: A Survey Study. JALT Journal, 31(2), 183–204. Retrieved from https://jalt-publications.org/ recentpdf/jj/2009b/art3.pdf

Kouritzin, S. G., Piquemal, N., & Renaud, R. D. (2009). An International Comparison of Socially Constructed Language Learning Motivation and Beliefs. Foreign Language Annals, 42(2), 287–317. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2009.01022.x

Kruglanski, A. W. (1975). The endogenous-exogenous partition in attribution theory.Psychological Review, 82(6), 387–406. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0033-295X.82.6.387

Kubota, R. (2020). Toward a Performative Commitment to Heterogeneity. In T. J. Silva & Z. Wang (Eds.), Reconciling Translingualism and Second Language Writing (pp. 163– 171). New York (USA): Routledge.

Masgoret, A. M., & Gardner, R. C. (2003). Attitudes, Motivation, and Second Language Learning: A Meta-Analysis of Studies Conducted by Gardner and Associates. Language Learning. A Journal in Research of Language Studies, 53(1), 167–210.

Matsuzaki-Carreira, J.    (2005).    New Framework of Intrinsic/Extrinsic and Integrative/Instrumental Motivation in Second Language Acquisition. The Keiai Journal of International Studies(16), 39–64. Retrieved from https://www.u-keiai.ac.jp/issn/ menu/ronbun/no16/039.pdf

McEown, M. S., Sawaki, Y., & Harada, T. (2017). Foreign Language Learning Motivation in the Japanese Context: Social and Political Influences on Self. Self. Modern Language Journal, 101(3), 533–547. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12411

Merlin, R. (2003). Students’ Motivation to Learn: Considerations for Elementary Teachers (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). College of William & Mary.

Moore, R. (2011). Standardisation, diversity and enlightenment in the contemporary crisis of EU language policy. Retrieved from https://wpull.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ WP74_Moore_2011_Standardisation_diversit.pdf

Moore, R. (2015). From Revolutionary Monolingualism to Reactionary Multilingualism: Top-Down Discourses of Linguistic Diversity in Europe, 1794-present. Language and Communication, 44, 19–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2014.10.014

Morales-Vallejo, P., Urosa-Sanz, B., & Blanco-Blanco, A. (2003). Construcción de escalas de actitudes tipo Likert: una guía práctica. Madrid (España): La Muralla.

Muir, C. (2020). Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education: Exploring Implications for Pedagogy. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Nowicka, M. (2009). Making sense of cosmopolitism. In M. Rovisco & M. Nowicka (Eds.), Cosmopolitanism in Practice (pp. 1–16). London: Routledge.

Osgood, C., Suci, G., & Tannenbaum, P. (1957). The Measurement of Meaning. University of Illinois Press.

Öztürk, G., & Gurbuz, N. (2013). Motivational Orientations of Turkish EFL Students: The Case at a State University. Journal of Language and Literature Education, 8, 62–77. Retrieved from https://oaji.net/articles/2014/1069-1406114310.pdf

Pourfeiz, J. (2016). A Cross-sectional Study of Relationship between Attitudes toward Foreign Language Learning and Academic Motivation. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 232, 668–676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.10.091

Randstad. (2017). El conocimiento de idiomas aumenta un 37% las posibilidades de encontrar empleo. Retrieved from https://www.randstad.es/nosotros/sala-prensa/el-conocimiento-de-idiomas-aumenta-un-37-las-posibilidades-de-encontrar-empleo

Rietveld, T., & Van Hout, R. (1993). Statistical Techniques for the Study of Language and Language Behaviour. Berlin (Germany): Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/ 9783110871609

Ruesch, A., Bown, J., & Dewey, D. P. (2012). Student and teacher perceptions of motivational strategies in the foreign language classroom. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 6(1), 15–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2011.562510

Ryan, R., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68

Ryan, R. M., & Powelson, C. L. (1991). Autonomy and Relatedness as Fundamental to Motivation and Education. Journal of Experimental Education, 60(1), 49–66. https:// psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/00220973.1991.10806579

Saito, K., Dewaele, J. M., Abe, M., & In’nami, Y. (2018). Motivation, Emotion, Learning Experience and Second Language Comprehensibility Development in Classroom Settings: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Study. Language Learning. A Journal of Research in Language Studies, 68(3), 709–743. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12297

Saito, K., Dewaele, J. M., & Hanzawa, K. (2017). A Longitudinal Investigation of the Relationship between Motivation and Late Second Language Speech Learning in Classroom Settings. Language and Speech, 60(4), 614–632. https://psycnet.apa.org/ doi/10.1177/0023830916687793

Santos, M. C. M. (2019). Estudios sobre la desmotivación del alumnado en el aprendizaje formal de lenguas extranjeras. Etudes romanes de Brno, 40(1), 99–122. https://doi.org/ 10.5817/ERB2019%E2%80%931-7

Santos, M. C. M. (2020). Aproximación a la amotivación y la desmotivación en el aprendizaje de contenidos a través del inglés como medio de instrucción (EMI) en la enseñanza superior en una universidad española. Hesperia: Anuario de filología hispánica, 23(1), 95–123. https://doi.org/10.35869/hafh.v23i0.2768

Santos-Ortega, A., & Muñoz-Rodríguez, D. (2015). Fuga de cerebros y biografías low cost: nueva etapa en la precarización de la juventud. RECERCA. Revista de pensament i anàlisi(16), 13–33. https://doi.org/10.6035/Recerca.2015.16.2

Shin, H., & Park, J. (2015). Researching language and neoliberalism. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 37 (5), 443–452. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2015.1071823

Stipek, D. J. (2002). Motivation to Learn: Integrating Theory and Practice. Allyn & Bacon. Sundqvist, P., & Sylvén, L. K. (2014). Language-related computer use: Focus on young L2 English learners in Sweden. ReCALL, 26(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/ S0958344013000232

Taguchi, T., Magid, M., & Papi, M. (2009). The L2 motivational self system amongst Chinese, Japanese, and Iranian learners of English: A comparative study. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Self (pp. 66–97). Briston (U.K.): Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847691293-005

Trinder, R. (2013). Business students’ beliefs about language learning in a university context. English for Specific Purposes, 32(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2012.06.003

Uribe, D., Gutierrez, J., & Madrid, D. (2008). Las actitudes del alumnado hacia el aprendizaje del inglés como idioma extranjero: estudio de una muestra en el sur de España. Porta Linguarum: revista internacional de didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras(10), 85–100. https://doi.org/10.30827/digibug.31782

Williams, M., & Burden, R. L. (1997). Psychology for language teachers. A Social Constructivist Approach. Cambridge (U.K.): Cambridge University Press.

Woolfolk, A. E. (2007). Educational Psychology. Pearson.

Downloads

Published

2024-01-22

How to Cite

Rodríguez Muñoz, M. L., Pérez Gálvez, J. C., & Buyse, K. (2024). Language learning among higher education students: an analysis on motivation. Research in Education and Learning Innovation Archives, (32), 36–56. https://doi.org/10.7203/realia.32.27546
Metrics
Views/Downloads
  • Abstract
    819
  • PDF
    363
  • EPUB
    192
  • HTML
    385

Issue

No. 32 (2024)

Section

ARTICLES

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Universitat de València is the editor of Research in Education and Learning Innovation Archives (REALIA) and retains the copyright of all that is published in the journal, while it allows and favours reuse under a copyleft license.
  2. The originals published in this journal are – unless otherwise specified – under a Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonComercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Research in Education and Learning Innovation Archives (REALIA) encourages authors to disseminate and give visibility to their research published in this journal. For this, REALIA wishes to inform that:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.
  2. The work is simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License: Attribution-NonComercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
  3. Self-archive: Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) to promote greater visibility and citation, with an acknowledgement of its first publication in this journal.

Metrics

Similar Articles

<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.