Despite the fact that the influence of learning experiences on foreign language learning motivation has been widely acknowledged and emphasised, there are hardly any studies concentrating on these learning experiences. Hence, the aim of this study is to map the language learning experiences of former and current language learners in order to provide a detailed account of the possible components of the foreign language learning experience. Data were collected with the help of a qualitative interview schedule involving 22 language learners in two subsamples. Ten participants are English language teachers as former foreign language learners, while 12 students, current learners of English, have also been recruited. The most important result of our study is that foreign language learning experience seems to be a complex construct including immediate and present aspects as well as self-related components and attributions. Language learning success, the teacher’s personality, contact experiences, as well as attitudes towards the L2 seem to stand out as important components for both groups of learners. Apart from discussing the differences and similarities between retrospective and concurrent experiences, we will provide pedagogical and research-related implications as well.

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Attribution theory (Weiner, 1985) and self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) have been explored as contributors to L2 motivation (cf. Dörnyei, 2001) but have never been studied quantitatively in concert. In addition, students' attributions for success in learning a foreign language have never been measured through the use of a questionnaire. The aim of this paper is therefore (a) to develop a questionnaire with reliable constructs that allows to measure adult learners' attributions for their success in learning English in a corporate setting, (b) to investigate these learners' attributions, and (c) to investigate the relationship between students' attributions and the constructs of Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation central to self-determination theory. Our main results show that among the attributions measured, interest, effort and corporate culture seemed to be the main causes that students recognised as directly involved in their success in learning English. Of all the attributional scales, interest and ability appeared to importantly contribute to intrinsic motivation, while corporate culture, encounters with foreign professionals and ability contributed to a lower extent to extrinsic motivation. It must be noted, however, that attributions for success to teacher and task were so consistently high that they could not be reliably measured with the questionnaire.

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Számos tanulmány megerősíti, hogy a tanárok jelentős szerepet játszanak a nyelvtanulók motivációjában (lásd például: Mezei és Csizér, 2005; Radel, Sarazzin, Legrain és Wild, 2010; Dörnyei és Ushioda, 2011). Ennek ellenére nagyon kevés kutatást végeztek felnőtt nyelvtanulók részvételével nem angol anyanyelvi (EFL) környezetben. Néhány kivétel ez alól Shoaib és Dörnyei (2005), Szaszkó (2007) és Murray (2011) tanulmánya. Ezek közül azonban egyik sem foglakozik a tanár felnőtt nyelvtanulókra kifejtett motiváló hatásával vállalati környezetben. Ez a dolgozat ezt a hiányt próbálja pótolni azáltal, hogy bemutatja három, a közelmúltban készült vizsgálat eredményeit. (1) Egy interjútanulmányt (N=17), amely azt vizsgálja, hogy a rendszerváltástól napjainkig hogyan változott a vállalati környezetben angol nyelvet tanuló felnőttek motivációs beállítódása, (2) egy kvantitatív kérdőíves tanulmányt (N=127), amely felnőtt nyelvtanulók attribúcióit mérte, (3) egy validációs tanulmányt (N=5), amely kutatási eszköz validálását mutatta be. Mindhárom kutatás eredményei megerősítették a tanárok motivációra kifejtett hatásának jelentőségét, különösen a személyre szabott figyelem motiváló hatását.