Motivation of UK school pupils towards foreign languages: a large-scale survey at Key Stage 3

Motivation is one of the most significant predictors of success in foreign language learning. While individual and governmental commitment to the learning of foreign languages is growing throughout most of Europe and across the globe, it is stuttering in the United Kingdom. An entitlement to language learning in primary school is not yet fully in place, whilst the removal of language from the core curriculum at Key Stage 4 (ages 14 to 16) has led to a dramatic fall in numbers of language learners. Among national initiatives seeking to enhance learners’ interest in languages among school pupils are Specialist Language Colleges and the Languages Ladder. The latter, by certifying achievement through its associated accreditation scheme Asset Languages, seeks to engender a sense of success and motivate continuation of language study. This article reports on a study conducted in 2005-06 of the language learning motivation of over ten thousand school pupils at Key Stage 3 – the only group currently obliged to study a foreign language. The study analyses the nature of learner motivation and its relationship with gender, level of study (Years 7, 8 and 9) and type of school, and thus provides evidence for possible measures to increase numbers of teenagers studying a foreign language, and a baseline against which the success of policy initiatives can be measured in the future

Aural Comprehension and Oral Production of Young EFL Learners pp. 17-33

Oral language is seen as the basis for establishing the new language in young learners. Hence the focus on oracy in early FL programmes. This talk will look into aural comprehension and oral production of young FL learners. The study whose findings will be reported was carried out as part of Early Language Learning in Europe - an international longitudinal project carried out in seven country contexts. Over 90 young EFL learners from Croatia and Italy participated in the study. They were drawn from metropolitan, small town and rural schools in each of the two country contexts. Comparisons were also made taking into account the young participants' individual differences (attitudes, motivation, linguistic self-concept) as well as the differences in the contexts in which they were learning EFL (teaching quality, exposure to English, home support, SES)

Role of Language Exposure in Early Foreign Language Learning pp.1-18

This contribution reports findings about the effects of exposure on early language learning. Informal, unsheltered language exposure has mostly been of interest in studies where learners were acquiring a second language in the target language setting. Extracurricular, informal language exposure in foreign language (FL) settings has generally been considered too insignificant, compared to formal exposure in the classroom, to contribute to the language learning process in any essential way