A Successful Language Learner

NAME: ROBERT IAIN COLLINS.NAME OF MODULE: SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING.

TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT: A SUCCESSFUL LANGUAGE LEARNER.DATE OF SUBMISSION: 17, JANUARY 2012.

1. Introduction

The aim of this paper is to shed some light on possible reasons why a language learner in a similar social and educational environment to his fellow classmates should stand out. I will be discussing how motivation theories have developed since the early seventies and how they relate to the individual and his social environment. Moreover, I will look at motivation and its various components and how the most important of these, integrativeness, has evolved in the foreign language context. In this paper I will also look at motivation and its relationship toa willingness to communicate (WTC) and how WTC in conjunction with opportunity can not only contribute to the goal of being a successful English language user but be considered success in itself. Hopefully in looking at what motivates this successful language learner it can help us to understand what forms of motivation should be nurtured to encourage the second language learner to be not only a competent user but also a willing one.

2. Literature Review.

2.1 Integrativeness

In 1959, Gardner and Lambert conducted the first investigation into the effects of both aptitude and motivation onsecond language acquisition (SLA) and found that they were relatively independent but were both influential with regard to achievement (Gardner, 1988). Since then, motivation has been considered to be a principal element in determining success in SLA and from these beginnings the socio-educational model was developed, a model that would dominate SLA research for many years and is still influential today. Gardner defined motivation as comprising an individual’s desire and attitudes toward the language and how much effort he was prepared to expend in learning the language. Motivation to learn a language is influenced by many factors, but perhaps one of the most

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contentious, as far as the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) is concerned, is integrativeness, which is made upof attitudes to the L2 language community, interest in foreign languages generally and an integrative orientation to learning the language (Gardner, Masgoret & Tremblay, 1999) and is further identified by Gardner (2001) as a learner having “a genuine interest in learning the second language in order to come closer to the other language community” ( p.5). The antecedent of integrativeness was found relevant in many studies in North America where the learners were actually living in the second language environment and indeed was considered to be of primary importance with regard to L2 competence (Gardner & Lambert, 1972,as cited in Noels, Pelletier, Clément and Vallerand, 2000), but how relevant could it be in a monolingual environment, such as Hungary or Japan where direct contact with native second language(L2) speakers was limited? In Csizér, Kormos and Sarkadi (2010), a study of dyslexic foreign language learners in Hungary, international posture replaced certain elements in the construct of integrativeness where, in the EFL context, it was considered to more aptly represent the orientations of students where directcontact with EFL speakers was limited.

In a study of Japanese students, Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide and Shimizu (2004) describe International posture as including an“interest in foreign or international affairs, willingness to go overseas to stay or work, and a readiness to interact with intercultural partners” (p.125). Yashima et al believe that in Japan, English is considered a world language and attitudes to the language and its speakers are not necessarily connected with a specific L2 community, but to an English speaking non-Japanese community. This view is also espoused in Dörnyei and Csizér (2002) where the traditional view of integrativeness is considered difficult to maintain when English is perceived to be a world language and the identity of L2 speakers and an L2 community becomes confused. Moreover, Yashima et al. also

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support Dörnyei (1990, as cited in Yashima et al.) in that attitudes towards English speaking cultures are fostered through education and a global English-using media. I will return to the question of integrativeness later when I look more closely at theories which are considered relevant to SLA in an EFL environment.

2.2 Additional Motivational Components

I would briefly like to look at some of the other antecedents that were included in Gardner’s socio-educational model and have been shown to affect the level of motivation with regard to L2 learning. Instrumentality, which traditionally focuses on tangible gains, such as a better job, but can also include travelling, becoming more knowledgeable, making foreign friends and even understanding the lyrics of songs (Csizér & Dörnyei, 2005a) has been considered very influential in the EFL environment and also significantly linked with integrativeness(Csizér &Dörnyei).

The social milieu, which can include society as a whole or be narrowed down to just parents and friends, also plays an important role, affecting attitudes, motivation and anxiety (Gardner et al., 1999). Csizér and Dörnier (2005a) found a connection between milieu and self-confidence deriving from the notion that if “community members generally believe that learninga L2 is doable, this belief will shape every learner’s perception” (p.28). Furthermore a continuum was found linking self-confidence to cultural interest and in turn to attitudes toward L2 speakers. With regard to the narrower conception of thesocial milieu, it has been suggested that the parental role is more influential in the EFL context (Gardner and Clément 1990, ascited in MacIntyre, Dörnyei, Clément & Noels, 1998)

In a study by Csizér and Dörnier (2005a, 2005b), integrativeness, instrumentality, attitudes toward L2 speakers

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and community, milieu, as well as cultural interest, vitality of the L2 community, and linguistic self-confidence, which as we will see later includes perceived competence, are considered to be seven of the most common aspects of L2 motivation. These aspects can be defined in different ways (Gardner, 2001) and theyare not mutually exclusive, various models have shown the overlapand interactive nature of these aspects (Csizér and Dörnier, 2005a, Csizér et al., 2010); other aspects that influence the reason why and how determined someone is to learn an L2 include the language learning situation and task motivation, which due tothe focus of this study will not be examined.

2.3 Self-Determination Theory

Another important development in the field of L2 motivation,which was not unconnected with the dilemma associated with the integrative orientation (Noels et al., 2000), came with the harnessing of the self-determination theory developed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. This theory deals with the quality of motivation and, as explored in Noels et al. (2000), consists of two types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic. The fact that we choose to do an activity because of the pleasure it gives and the feeling of perceived competence which we innately seek from that activity are linked to the intrinsic and more influential form of motivation. Whereas extrinsic motivation, as its name implies, has more to do with external, that is, instrumental reasons and pressures determining why we do an activity. However,these two types of motivation are not polar opposites, there is acontinuum of regulation ranging from external to introjected to identifying regulations and these regulations identify to what extent an activity is internalized, in other words, how far we consider the activity to be self-determined. Noels et al. were interested in these three regulations but there are in fact five,there are also integrated and intrinsic regulations (Dörnyei, 2001), which are ‘close to’ and ‘pure’ intrinsic motivation.

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Noels et al. (2000) examined the self-determination theory and felt it useful in understanding the importance of orientations. In their study they looked at the four orientationsconsidered to be common to all groups of learners, travel, friendship, knowledge and the instrumental orientation. Instrumentality was found to be associated with extrinsic motivation whereas the other three orientations were connected with intrinsic types of motivation. Freedom of choice and perceived competence were also linked with more self-determined forms of motivation and the lack of these two criteria was linkedwith amotivation. Finally, Noels et al. suggested that the more internalized the reasons for learning an L2 the less likely L2 learners would be to discontinue their studies and the less anxious they would feel, this is due to the fact that they consider learning the language pleasurable or reflecting their self-concept.

The self-determination theory should not be seen as competing with the socio-educational model. On its own neither concept can fully explain motivation in the EFL context. Gardner’s model places too much emphasis on integrativeness and the self-determination model is an unsuitable instrument for dealing with the complex influences of society (Ortega, 2009), but together they help us to understand the quantitative and qualitative aspects of L2 learning.

2.4 L2 Motivational Self System

Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self System brings together much of the socio-educational model and the self-determination theory,incorporating them into the theoretical framework of the ideal self (Higgins, 1987 as cited in Ortega, 2009). Basically ‘the ideal self’ is how we would like to be and ‘the ought to self’ ishow we think we should be. Csizér and Dörnyei (2005a) consider that if we see our ideal self as a successful L2 speaker and all it entails, this reflects an “integrative disposition” (p.29).

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Moreover, it is our drive to close the gap between our actual self-image and our possible self-image that fuels our motivation to become proficient in an L2. In studies on the motivations of Hungarian students, who had little or no direct contact with L2 speakers, it was found that integrativeness was the most important motivational factor (Dörnyei and Csizér, 2002; Csizér and Dörnier) Integrativeness was defined – through the questionnaire – as the students attraction to the L2 itself, the L2 culture and the L2 speakers respectively. Dörnyei and Csizér considered that in the EFL context integrativeness should be conceptionalised, not as a desire to somehow become a member of an L2 community, but as a ‘more basic identification process within the individual’s self-concept” (p.456). In a later study (Csizér and Dörnyei) the L2 Motivational Self System is used to explain, redefine and relabel integrativeness in the EFL context.Again, integrativeness was found to be the most important factor for Hungarian students with limited or no contact with L2 speakers and obviously no possibility of integrating into an L2 community. The study revealed that the main antecedents of integrativeness included not only the expected attitudes to L2 speakers, but also instrumentality.

In light of these findings Csizér and Dörnyei (2005a) have suggested that the identification with the L2 community is basically identification with an “idealized L2-speaking self, which indicates that the more positive our disposition toward these L2 speakers, the more attractive our idealized self” (p29).However, it is not only this, our ideal self also includes our being professionally successful, hence instrumentality which traditionally includes extrinsic motives, for example, learning English to get a place at a good university overseas, may be internalized to differing extents and therefore related to the ideal self. One last but important point is that the young learner needs the ability, based on maturity, focus, confidence and perceived competence to create this image of a possible

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future self (Csizér & Dornier). As Yashima et al. (2004) put it:“Those who are conscious of how they relate themselves to the world tend to be motivated to study English, as they probably visualize their ‘English-using selves clearly” (p.142-143).

2.5 Willingness To Communicate (WTC)

Dörnier (2001) states that: “generating a willingness to communicate in the foreign language is arguably a central if not the most central objective of modern L2 pedagogy” (p. 52). According to the heuristic model produced by MacIntyre et al. (1998) WTC consists of many components, one of these is linguistic self-confidence, which according to Clément (1980, 1986 as cited in MacIntyre et al.) includes two constructs: perceived competence and a lack of anxiety. These two constructs can be considered both trait and variable constructs that is, they are enduring but may vary in strength according to differentsituations, for example, who we are speaking to, why and where. Clément, Baker and MacIntyre (2003) show that the frequency and quality of L2 contact have the greatest influence on L2 confidence which in turn is a predictor of WTC. Personality traits can also be important, for example, how ethnocentric, agreeable and open to new experiences an L2 learner is, influences his or her attitudes to foreign people and hence how willing he/she is to communicate with L2 speakers (MacIntyre et al., 1998).

Once again integrativeness is found to play a role, how often andhow much we communicate with L2 speakers is influenced by our wish to come closer to that L2 community (MacIntyre et al 1998). This is also supported in Yashima et al., (2004) where they foundthat international posture significantly predicted WTC. In a study of Japanese students Yashima et al. confirmed that self-confidence based on a perception of one’s competence was significantly related to WTC and that students who were interested in foreign affairs and desired to work or stay abroad

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– determinants of international posture – tended to be more willing to communicate with L2 speakers.

The motivational links with WTC are not only connected with interest in and attitudes to the L2 community but also with learning behaviour, if students consider their experiences of communicating in the L2 as favourable then this will positively affect their language learning behaviour and motivate students toput more effort into learning the language (Dörnyei & Kormos 2000, Yashima et al.).

3. Methodology

3.1The Participant

Chris is a 13 year old Greek boy in grade eight at school where he obtains straight As in all his school subjects. He is ina class of eight students at a foreign language centre preparing for a B2 level examination to be taken in May 2012. I have been teaching English in Greece for over 20 years from beginner to proficiency level. In those years I have encountered a very smallnumber of extraordinary students and I consider Chris to be one of them. I have been teaching Chris for four years and have foundhim to be very mature for his age. In contrast to his fellow students of the same age Chris has a clear idea of his future goals and how important a role English plays in accomplishing these goals. He is learning French as a third language at school,this was not one of his first choices which were respectively Spanish and Italian but for various reasons these options were ultimately not available. Chris has also been learning Spanish for over two years, a choice made on his own initiative and he has one to two hours of private lesson a week. He lives in a small town in the north west of Greece which is rarely visited bytourists and so normally he has few opportunities to have direct contact with English speakers to practice his English outside theclassroom and away from the internet. His parents are also very

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supportive in regard to his achieving his goals and generally of his language learning.

3.2 The Interview

The interview, which took place on 21 December 2011, consisted of 27 questions and lasted 30 minutes. Chris was provided with the questions by email a few days before so that hecould study them and discuss anything he did not understand, as all the questions were in English. He had no queries and even though he was given the opportunity to carry out the interview inGreek, or both English and Greek, in the event the whole interview was conducted in English. There was a follow up interview which was carried out on 9 January and this consisted of a further six questions, dealing mainly with his attitudes to Spanish and French and lasted five minutes. The transcripts of both interviews can be found in the appendix.

The main focus of the interview was on motivation and its various components. However, the interview also covered the area of WTC and Chris’s perception of his own competence and aptitude.These two aspects are interconnected and influence each other with the result that Chris is determined to learn the language well and will seek out opportunities to practice an L2 with the result that he will in fact become a more successful L2 learner.

4. Discussion

The main focus of this paper is to consider why Chris is a more successful learner than his classmates. In this part of the paper I will look at the role of integrativeness, breaking it down into its respective components: attitudes toward L2 speakers, attitudes toward foreign languages generally and integrative orientation. I will also evaluate how the social milieu, specifically the role played by his parents, influences Chris’ language learning motivation. Next, I will consider Chris’

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motivational attitudes toward English, French and Spanish throughthe lens of the self-determination theory. I will also examine the quality of Chris’ motivation with regard to the construct of the L2 Self Motivational Self System. Finally I will look at WTC and how this has affected Chris’ learning success.

4.1 Integrativeness

Attitudes to L2 speakers

I think it can be understood from Chris’ responses that he has positive attitudes toward L2 speakers he sees them as “sociable” and “good” and he would like to visit English speakingcounties such as England, the US and Australia. A desire to travel to the L2 speaking country is considered an important indicator with regard to attitudes to L2 speakers (Csizér & Dörnier, 2005a). We can compare Chris’ desire to travel to L2 speaking countries with his lack of interest toward visiting France and his lack of empathy with this language. Chris also considers that the lives of his L2 speaking friends living in Australia and England are “a lot better than here (Greece)”. As can be seen, when Chris refers to L2 speakers he is not referringto one particular country, he considers English to be an international language, which he mentions a number of times during the interview, his attitudes are not bound to one country but to English speaking countries in general or even countries where English is used to communicate. This stance is reflected inCsizér and Dörnier where it is suggested that in the EFL context L2 community identities become confused and in Yashima et al. (2004) where, in Japan, attitudes to English are not necessarily directed to a specific L2 community but to an English non –Japanese community. So, when Gardner (1999) refers to integrativeness as relating to an “individual’s willingness and interest in having social interaction with members of the second group,” this second group needs to be seen, in Chris’ case, as a global L2 community. An L2 learner’s attitudes to L2 speakers

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have been shown to be influenced by cultural and media aspects (Csizér &Dörnyei), especially in the EFL context where direct contact is limited. Chris says he initially grew to like English through listening to music, he also mentions that he communicatesin English while playing online games and watches English language films without subtitles.

Attitudes to foreign languages

Throughout the interview Chris mentions how he likes English, both the learning process and the language itself. Chrisbelieves that English is not just another school subject, he says, “For me it is much more important… if someone knows Englishhe can do many more things because he can do whatever he wants.” In fact he has a positive attitude to foreign languages in general saying, “I like to learn other languages. After English and Spanish I’d like to learn Japanese or Swedish”. A change can be discerned to have taken place in his attitudes when he says: “when I started lessons I didn’t like this language but through the years I started to like it.” However, his attitudes to foreign languages are not indiscriminant, for he has a negative attitude to French, but we will investigate the reasons for this later.

Integrative orientation

The third component of Gardner’s (1985) construct, integrativeness is an integrative orientation, which Ortega (2009) defines as “identification with the target culture and a genuine desire to become more like members of the L2 group.” Chris says, “There are a lot of things in my culture that alienate me. Mostly the character of the people… I think they’ve become much more rude, leery and a bit bad.” Even though Chris has positive attitudes towards L2 speakers and there is somethingin his own culture which doesn’t “name him” (Kaplan, 1983 as cited in Ortega), he does not see himself as living permanently

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in an L2 speaking country, “if I can I want to live in Greece.” Even though Chris does identify with English speaking cultures through various media, as we have already discussed, he has no overwhelming association with a particular L2 culture or community, so I think we can deduce from this that the integrative orientation is not a highly significant factor, he shows no inclination to become a member of another specific L2 community.

4.2 Social Milieu

Another important influence affecting the motivation of young L2 learners is the social milieu and probably, parents playthe most important role in this area. Gardner (1985) considers that parents influence their children in two ways, firstly, by simply encouraging them to learn the language and to persevere and secondly by transmitting attitudes toward an L2. Chris says that his father wanted him to learn English and that his parents “think that everyone should know a foreign language, the fact that someone knows many languages that is a good thing.” With regard to encouragement Chris laughs, saying that his mother threatens him with sanctions: “If you don’t get 100% you won’t ever play on the computer again.” It seems she has high expectations of her son.

Society as a whole also plays an important role in shaping attitudes to L2 learning. In Greek schools it is compulsory to learn two languages from the fourth grade, as a consequence all of Chris’ friends learn English both at school and in private institutions and 10 or 20 of them are learning a third language, privately. English in Hungary is considered “the global language of the 21st century” (Csizér et al., 2010, p.476) and this seems to be the case in Greece and, as can be inferred from the number of children studying English privately, it is considered by society as a whole to be within the children’s capabilities to learn this language.

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4.3 Self-Determination Theory

The above mentioned orientations concern motivational quantity. I would now like to look at the quality of Chris’ motivation from the perspective of the Self-Determination theory (SDT). When Chris first started learning English it was at his father’s instigation, so it would be fair to assume that this could be considered an external regulation but now, as he mentions several times in the interview, he likes the language and enjoys learning and using it, so it seems that the activity of learning English has become internalized. He considers himselfto be better than the other children in his class, perhaps because, as he says: “I have a bit more experience in this subject and I can use the English that I know better” or because “the rest of the group need to put a bit more effort into the lessons.” Also he considers that it has become his choice to continue learning English, “I wanted to continue with it.” Noels et al. (2000) note that perceived competence and freedom of choice are linked to more self-determined forms of motivation.

In the same study, it was also found that travel, friendship andknowledge were linked to intrinsic motivation, aspects that Chrisassociates with learning English. He mentions travel and friendship several times and his utterances reveal a connection with knowledge, both generally “I think if someone knows how to speak English he can do many more things because he can do whatever he wants” and more specifically in connection with online games, “I can understand what the game tells me to do.” Interestingly, Chris only refers indirectly to passing exams during the interview when referring to the level of proficiency he desires to reach, he says, “the highest level, C2, because I want to travel abroad and if I can work abroad, learning English and knowing how to speak that language well, that will help me a lot in the future.” Learning an L2 to pass examinations is clearly an instrumental and therefore extrinsic form of

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motivation (Noels et al., 2000) and one I have found to be the main reason why most Greek children learn English but for Chris it is intertwined with travel and knowledge, more commonly linkedto intrinsic motivation.

I would argue that Chris is intrinsically motivated in relation to his learning of English whereas if we look at how hisFrench learning experience relates to SDT we will see a differentpicture. First, it was not his choice to learn French, his first choices were Spanish and Italian, but ultimately for one reason or another they were not available, so he chose French (as opposed to German, the other language offered by his school) because he had studied this language in primary school. He has nowish to travel to that country and his only cultural or direct contact with that country was when he “was too young to speak English” and he adds: “I don’t like the language” or “the way of speaking” so, as we can see there is little motivational impetus for learning this language. However, his motivation for learning Spanish is completely different, he himself chose to start learning Spanish, “because when I was little my dream was to go to Spain, Barcelona, Madrid, and I still want to visit these cities.” He likes Spanish as much as English, the key factor is the importance of English and lack of direct contact with Spanishspeakers. He can therefore be considered to be mainly, if not wholly, intrinsically motivated with regard to his learning of Spanish at this time.

4.4 L2 Motivational Self System

Chris is a highly motivated L2 learner, who as we have seen has limited contact with L2 speakers outside the classroom, so how can this be reconciled with Gardner’s (2001) highest form ofmotivation, integrative motivation, of which integrativeness and hence an integrative orientation, is a key component? As we haveseen in the discussion on integrativeness, Chris has positive attitudes toward L2 speakers and the cultural products associated

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with English and these attitudes impact on the attractiveness of his ideal self and influence his efforts to narrow the gap between his actual self and his ideal self (Dörnyei and Csizér, 2002; Csizér and Dörnier, 2005a). The indication of an integrative orientation is Chris’ identification with an L2 speaking community, of which I found little evidence, whereas within the concept of his ideal self he identifies himself with his possible L2 speaking self and this self being a participant in a global English speaking community.

What is more, Chris has the maturity and ability to clearly see himself as being a successful L2 user in the future, he wantshis proficiency of English to be of the “highest level” because as he says, “I want to travel abroad and if I can work abroad, learning English and knowing how to speak the language well, thatwill help me a lot in the future.” This ability to visualize a future self is I believe not shared by the other members of his English class and as Chris says in his own words, “English is something very good that helps you a lot but most people here in Greece don’t understand that part.”

4.5 Willingness To Communicate

“Is it possible to hypothesize that learners who clearly visualize ‘possible’ or ‘ideal’ English-using selves are likely to make an effort to become more proficient and develop WTC (willingness to communicate) and engage in interaction with others using English?”(Yashima et al., 2004, p.143.) In this section I would like to explore the relationship between Chris’ ideal self and his WTC.

Frequent and favourable experiences connected to L2 communication have been shown to affect WTC by increasing an L2 learner’s perceived competence and hence his linguistic L2 confidence (Clément et al., 2003, Yashima et al., 2004). Chris isby far the most prolific contributor to class discussions, as he

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says, “I always want to do things … I think that I can speak English well,” elsewhere he adds, “I like English lessons here (the language school) … because we do more speaking.” These utterances indicate that Chris is confident in his L2 abilities. He also has frequent contact with L2 speakers through Facebook and online games, but then so do many of his classmates. I think an important factor in increasing Chris’ positive perception of his L2 competence and L2 confidence was the summer he spent with his Australian friend Alex three years ago. He says: “it helped me a lot to improve my speaking and after that summer I didn’t have many problems in speaking, I wasn’t nervous.” I think this experience had a knock-on effect which can be observed not only in class but also on his trip to Dubai, which he took with his parents last year. In Dubai, he says: “we spoke only English. I think I helped my family a lot.” In his own mind he associates his confidence in his competence to communicate in the L2 with the summer he spent with Alex and this, one could argue, has influenced how he visualizes his ideal L2 speaking self.

Moreover, the contact Chris has experienced with L2 speakershas been positive and this has influenced his L2 attitudes, whichin turn have affected his WTC. One aspect of L2 attitudes includes attitudes to foreigners in general and L2 speakers in particular. In the interview Chris indicates that he is open to new experiences, agreeable, or at least sociable and shows low ethnocentricity through several of his utterances; by travelling and working overseas “you can make new friends,” and “there are alot of things in my culture that alienate me.” These personality traits by affecting attitudes also affect WTC (MacIntyre et al., 1998) and I would argue in accord with Dörnyei (2005) that these positive attitudes and aspirations relate not only to Chris’ WTC but also to his ideal self.

Clément et al. (2003) also mention that where L2 contact islimited the support of “significant others” (p.205), in Chris’

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case his parents, can also have an effect on WTC by decreasing anxiety and increasing perceived competence. This support can be seen in his parents inviting Alex to stay with them and in their confidence in Chris’ L2 abilities in Dubai.

Finally, one of the basic tenets of motivation is a desire to learn (Gardner, 1988) and I think we can see that Chris enjoysspeaking and has a genuine desire to communicate in English whichis devoid of any noticeable anxiety. Moreover, the frequency of contact he enjoys in the classroom setting has been reinforced bythe quality of contact, albeit limited, outside the classroom.

5. Conclusion

I have tried to shed some light on some of the factors that have influenced Chris’ L2 learning experience and possibly determine why he is a more successful L2 learner than his classmates. Given that the classroom environment is more or less the same for these students and the interview is not the best instrument to measure aptitude I have concentrated on why he wants to learn the language, that is, his motivation, which I have looked at from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives and WTC, which influences his using the L2.

I would suggest that the quantity and quality of Chris’ motivation have contributed to making him a more successful L2 learner when compared to his fellow students. He is a mainly intrinsically motivated individual who has the maturity and vision to understand how important English is and will be to him in the future. He can see himself as a successful L2 speaker travelling and working overseas. Moreover, the greater amount of direct L2 contact - in comparison with his fellow students - and the quality of these communication experiences has led to increased levels of perceived competence and linguistic self-confidence which has in turn increased his WTC, that is, his desire to use the language. His parents have also been

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influential directly, in their support and indirectly, in their attitudes. The implication of these observations is that studentswhose motivation for learning an L2 is purely to pass examinations and gain qualifications to obtain a job in their owncountry will be less successful learners than those with higher levels of motivation with regard to both quantity and quality. With this in mind, the teaching situation, parents and society asa whole should emphasise the non-examination benefits of L2 learning and communication.

A weakness of this paper is that it does not and cannot, dueto its interview framework, look at the other great variable withregard to second language acquisition – aptitude. Moreover, even though the classroom environment is the same for Chris and his classmates, there are many factors that make the classroom more equal for some than others. Finally, a thirty minute interview can only give us an inkling of what makes Chris a successful L2 learner.

References

Clément, R., Baker, S. C., & MacIntyre, P.D. (2003). Willingness to communicate in a second language: the effects of context, norms, and vitality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 22, 190- 209.

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Csizér, K., & Dörnyei, Z. (2005a). The internal structure of language learning motivation and its relationship with language choice and learning effort. The Modern Language Journal, 89,19-36.

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Appendix 1: Transcribed interview – Part 1

Q: OK. Right, so can you tell me when and why you started learning English?

A: I’ve been learning English since I was eight years old and themain purpose I’m learning this language is because it’s international and I like this language.

Q: Ok, so have the reasons you’ve continued to do English, have they changed over the years ?

A: Well, when I started lessons I didn’t like this language but through the years I started to like it

Q: Did you want to go to English or did your mum and dad decide you should start?

A: My father wanted me to learn English but after some years because I was listening to English songs and American. I wanted to continue with it.

Q: OK. Now about your parents –w hat is their attitude to learning English or foreign languages generally?

A: They think that everyone must know another language, the fact that someone knows many languages that is a good thing.

Q: Do they know any other languages?

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A: My mother speaks a bit of English and before some years was learning Italian but she stopped the lessons.

Q: Why do you think it’s important that you know other languages?

A: Because I can communicate with other people when I travel, when you work and you can make new friends.

Q: What about your friends here in Greece do they all learn otherlanguages?

A: All my friends learn English because they do lessons at schoolbut only 10 or 20 learn other languages.

Q: OK. Now I want you to think about how English affects your everyday life. Think about different aspects, like about your school work, about knowledge generally, about maybe the internet,films music different things like this.

A: Now that I know some things of the English language. I can find things and learn new things through the internet. I can watch movies without subtitles

Q: Do you play games on the internet? How does English help you here?

A: I can communicate with the other people online. I can understand what the game tells me to do.

Q: When you say you can communicate with other people where are these people from?

A: All over the world. Mostly Europe, English people, German, Spanish.

Q: Ok We’ll get to Spanish in a minute. So, what level would you like to reach in English?

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A: The highest level, C2, because I want to travel abroad and if I can work abroad, learning English and knowing how to speak thatlanguage well, that will help me a lot in the future.

Q: So, you are thinking of working abroad in the future? What kind of work?

A: Architecture.

Q: Are you thinking of studying abroad as well?

A: Yes, England, Italy, Spain, Japan, America.

Q:In England, America and Japan you’d have to speak English. You’d have to learn Italian.

A: Yes, because people there don’t speak English. They don’t liketo speak English.

Q: Do you think that English is just another school subject or isit something different or more important?

A: For me it is something much more important because in school you can’t learn something difficult or important in the English lesson. You just learn the basics. I think that if someone knows how to speak English he can do many more things because he can dowhatever he wants.

Q: So, you see yourself as an English speaker in the future. Travelling, studying and maybe working abroad. What’s your opinion of somebody that knows lots of languages or knows Englishreally well as a second language?

A: Someone that knows many languages, he can travel all over the world without having any problems. He can work abroad, he can do many things.

Q: How much effort do you put into learning English?

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A: I think that I put enough effort into learning English, not too much but enough

Q: You always do your homework don’t you? Do you enjoy your English lessons?

A: Here?

Q: Well, we can start here and compare it to school later.

A: I like the English lessons here and at school, mostly here because we do more speaking and listening which we can’t do at school. We can do speaking but we don’t have CDs to do some listening.

Q: What about the actual group the class the students that you’rewith?

A: I think that the rest of the group need to put a bit more effort into the lessons and I think we’re a nice group we don’t have many problems.

Q: Are listening and speaking your favourite parts of the lesson?

A: Not listening, because listening is a bit boring.

Q: What’s your general opinion of the US and the UK? We’re thinking economically, culturally, a place to live.

A: These two countries are well standing financially and someone can travel there without having any problems. Many people want tolive in these countries or want to work there or visit them. I also want to go there. I like it.

Q: Do you think you could see yourself living there?

A: Not exactly living there, for the summer one month, some days in New York some days in California

Q: Do you think Greece will always be your base?

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A: If I can I want to live in Greece, but if I can’t live in Greece because of the problems we have now, I’ll go to live somewhere else.

Q: What about English and American people? Have you met many English and American people?

A: I know some English people but not American, I also know some Australian people. I think they’re sociable, they are good people. I don’t have any problems with them.

Q: What about your own culture? Is there anything in your own culture that alienates you?

A: Well there are a lot of things in my culture that alienate me.Mostly the character of the people of my country because during the last century their character has changed, before these years Greek people were sociable, good people but now I think they’ve become much more rude, leery and a bit bad.

Q: Do you think it’s because of the economic crisis?

A: Not only because of that.

Q: Do you study any other languages?

A: Yes, I study Spanish.

Q: Why did you start learning Spanish?

A: Because when I was little my dream was to go to Spain, Barcelona, Madrid, and I still want to visit these cities and that’s why I wanted to learn Spanish.

Q: So, this was your decision not your parents.

A: Yes. And I still want to learn (Spanish). I like the language too.

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Q: What about school do you do another language at school apart from English?

A: Last year we could choose what language we wanted to do, except English. I chose Spanish but there weren’t enough children. Then I chose Italian but there wasn’t a professor and then I did French because I was learning this language in elementary school which I think helped me a lot in the high school.

Q: So, French is not one of your first choices. Do you like French lessons?

A: I don’t like this language.

Q: In Greece, how important is it for you personally or socially to know another language?

A: I think that learning another language, except Greek and English is something very good that helps you a lot but most people, here in Greece, don’t understand that part and just want to know a few words and I think that is a mistake.

Q: Yes, but lots of children go to frontistirio to learn English?

A: That’s because we think that we must learn English because English is an international language.

Q: So do you think English is the lingua franca the language you need to know to travel and work?

A: Yes, because it is the international language of economics, travel, art, films.

Q: Now we’re going to change the subject a bit. WTC is your willingness to communicate. How much you like to talk and why? So, the first question is: why is it do you think that you are soeager to take part and lead discussion in class? Because, when I ask who wants to do a project you always volunteer first.

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A: I always want to do things; not only in English but all the other subjects at school, at frontistirio everywhere. I think that I can speak English well I don’t have any problems.

Q: Do you think it’s part of your personality?

A: Yes.

Q: Now, I know you’ve been abroad to Dubai and Austria. Did you speak English when you went to these countries?

A: Mostly in Dubai and Austria because when I went to France I was too young to speak English. In Dubai we spoke only English. Ithink that I helped my family most to communicate.

Q: And did you want to do this?

A: Yes, because I wanted to practice my English.

Q: When you spoke English there, were you nervous or worried about your English?

A: I wasn’t nervous because one or two years before that trip I was hanging out with a friend of mine, an Australian guy that washere in Greece for the summer and it helped me a lot to improve my speaking and after that summer I didn’t have many problems in speaking, I wasn’t nervous.

Q: You felt quite confident and comfortable, I guess. (Yes) Do you ever feel anxious when you’re learning English, for a test for example?

A: Well, sometimes, most times when I have a test my mother says if you don’t get 100% you won’t ever play on the computer again and when I say it’s 96% she says: “oh, you don’t know anything.”

Q: Does this worry you much?

A: No, I’m not worried but she always gets angry, not very much but…

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Q: Now let’s change the subject again. Do you think you have an aptitude for languages? Do you think you are good at languages?

A: Yes, I think I have an aptitude for other languages because I like to learn other languages. After English and Spanish I’d liketo learn Japanese or Swedish.

Q: Why do you think you are better than some other children in your class, because you study the same things, you do the same course, have the same teachers?

A: I think that I’m a bit better than the other children, that’s because I have a bit more experience in this subject and I can use the English that I know better.

Q: What about things like learning words though, how easy is it?

A: Well, I think English is very easy but I’m a bit lazy. The words we learn from the companion book, I can learn 25 words justby reading them twice.

Q: How would you describe your personality? Do you think you’re quiet, talkative, relaxed, tense?

A: Well, I think that I am talkative and sociable. A bit relaxed and lazy – a bit. But I think that the fact that I’m sociable helps me a lot in learning this language.

Q: So, are you open to new experiences?

A: Always

Q: What about grammar what do you think about grammar and how do you learn grammar? Do you practice it?

A: I don’t really like a lot the grammar. You just read some rules of the language. But you must learn the grammar because if you don’t know the grammar you can’t speak. You can’t use the language.

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Q: Do you use any strategies or tricks to try and remember the grammar?

A: No, I find it easy to remember the grammar.

Q: Now, this is about the classroom experience. How important do you think the role of the teacher is?

A: I think that someone can’t learn alone. Someone has to teach them. The teachers are very important in a class because they pass the information to the children, right at that moment. I don’t think that a class could learn a language or anything without someone to tell them.

Q: Is it just a case of telling them? Tell me about your French teacher and English teacher at school.

A: Most teachers at my school use a lot of dialogue that helps usto learn many things. I have a good thing, I can remember things that the teacher said in the class and that helps me a lot in doing my homework. I don’t have to read too much. That’s why I think that a teacher is very important. Teachers that use dialogue, not just reading the text from the book.

Q: When you say using dialogue, what do you mean, speaking to theclass, asking questions?

A: Yes. The student talks about himself.

Q: How would you compare the school experience to the frontistirio experience?

A: After school, in Greece we have a problem, that when we start English in third grade we start with the alphabet, the basics butthen in the seventh grade the first grade of junior high school we start again at the basics not continuing what we learnt at elementary school and that goes on at high school, it’s the same at high school. That’s the biggest problem because we learn what

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we learn until this type of school ends. After then we start fromthe beginning.

Q: So, you’re not really learning many new things.

A: No. Now at school we are learning past perfect simple and we’ve done that here.

Q: Well, it’s practice, I guess. What about teaching methods and materials? Do you use videos, books, CDs. Different methods like pair work group work doing different presentations with videos. How does this affect your enjoyment?

A: That helps the lesson not to be boring. To make it more interesting. It helps the children that don’t like to study to learn the grammar and the words by playing or videotaping.

Q: The problem is you have to study a lot here in Greece. You go to school in the morning, you have frontistirio in the afternoon.

A: That’s the biggest problem because in the schools we don’t fully understand the subject. Most children need to do lessons outside the school. To fill the gap.

Ok. That’s all my questions. Thank you.

Appendix 2: Transcribed interview – Part 2.

Q: Now Chris can you tell me some more about the summer you spentwith your Australian friend? Who was he? Why were you spending time together? Did you want to? What did you talk about?

A:Well, my Australian friend called Alex came to my village to stay with me for a week, three years ago. We have a lot of things

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in common, like playing video games, bicycle… cycling and other. We also went to a Greek island Skopolos, where we have a house and we were talking about his life in Australia and the other places he has visited.

Q: So, would you like to go to Australia?

A: Yes.

Q: What about Spanish versus English. Which is more important or enjoyable to you and why?

A: Well, I like both languages the same. I use English much more the English in my life, because I speak with English people but don’t have connections with Spanish people.

Q: When you say speak with English people, what do you mean?

A: You and my friends in Australia people that speak English not English people

Q: Do you have a Facebook or Twitter account? Do you communicate with anyone in English?

A: I have a Facebook and a Twitter account, but I don’t use too much Twitter and I communicate with my friend Alex with Facebook and I email with his mother.

Q: Why don't you like French? Can you give some details?

A: I’ve been studying French for a year, but I didn’t like the way of speaking and the grammar of the language and the main reason I didn’t like the language is because I didn’t like the country. I didn’t have much intention to go to this country.

Q: Can you tell me why you don’t like the country?

A: It’s not that I don’t like the country I want to visit some other countries.

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Q: Do you know any people who are studying or working abroad?

A: Yes, I know a person that is studying in England, I can’t remember which university. I know some people that are working abroad. A friend of ours works in Dubai and Alex’s family that works in Australia.

Q: What impression of their life do you get? I mean do they have a good life there.

A: Oh. Yes. A lot better than we have here.

Q: Are there times when you feel disappointed with your progress in English or you just can't be bothered to study?

A: Well once, speaking in the class we were talking about economic and political issues and I didn’t have the vocabulary toparticipate in this conversation. That’s the only problem I had with my progress.

Q: Normally, how much do you participate in class?

A: I like participating in class because this is how I show the knowledge I have.

Ok. Thank you very much.

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