Motivation, Gender, and Possible Selves

Abstract

[This is the pre-publication version of Henry, A. (2013) The motivational effects of crosslinguistic awareness: Developing third language pedagogies to address the negative impact of the L2 on the L3 self-concept. Innovations in Language Learning and Teaching DOI:10.1080/17501229.2012.733008] ] IntroductionThe last fifteen years have seen a burgeoning research interest in multilingualism witnessed, the recent yet nevertheless fundamental recognition that humans are "potentially multilingual by nature and that multilingualism is the normal sate of linguistic competence" (Hammarberg, 2009, p. 2; see also Aronin & Singelton, 2008). This recognition has generated a number of areas of theoretical enquiry including the intentionality of language choice, the influences that the different languages have on one another and the individual's relative levels of competence in different languages. A second set of reasons involves the complexity of L3 acquisition.Researchers working in the multilingual/TLA fields argue that mono-or bilingual 2 perspectives fail to do justice to the complex processes involved in multilingual acquisition and that research designs fail to take account of the multifaceted and complex nature of the language systems of multilingual speakers (Cenoz & Jessner, 2000;Herdina & Jessner, 2002;Jessner, 2008a). This has led to the development of a number of models of multilingual acquisition such as Green's (1998) activation/inhibition model, Grosjean's (1998Grosjean's ( , 2001 language mode hypothesis, De Bot's (1992) bilingual model, Clyne's (2003) plurilingual processing model, Hufeisen's factor model Hufeisen & Marx, 2007) and Herdina and Jessner's (2002) Dynamic Model of Multilingualism. The third set of reasons is practical. Not only has increasing human mobility given rise to more widespread multilingualism, but the integral role of English in processes of globalization (Phillipson, 2003(Phillipson, , 2009) means that in many ethnolinguistic groups, speakers who were once bilingual are now trilingual (Cenoz & Jessner, 2000). Additionally, as a result of the reframing of English as a basic educational skill, as opposed to a foreign language (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011), millions of school students, in addition to their native language(s), are now learning English in their early years of school and a second foreign language later on in secondary education.Like other emerging fields of inquiry, TLA research has been primarily driven by theoretical concerns. Even though local educational dilemmas -for example bilinguals' acquisition of a third language in places such as Finland, the Netherlands, Austria and the Basque andCatalonian regions of Spain -may have generated an initial interest in multilingualism, it is only recently that scholars in the field have attempted to synthesize the results of research into educationally-oriented frameworks and to draw up agendas for third language learning practice (Jessner, 2008b). Rooted in the pioneering work of scholars such as Ringbom (1987), who was able to...

Language learning motivation and gender: The case of Poland

“…The findings regarding the ideal L2 self, or an image of oneself as a proficient speaker of an L2 (Dörnyei, ), are conflicting. Female learners have reported more robust visions of themselves as successful language users than their male peers in the studies looking at Japanese learners of English (Ryan, ) and Swedish L3 learners of German, French and Spanish (Henry & Cliffordson, ). Henry and Cliffordson () propose that the reason for this difference is that females are more likely than males to construct interdependent selves, which stress interaction with others, leading to more robust ideal L2 selves.…”

“…These studies concluded that female learners are more highly motivated than their male colleagues. However, a small number of studies reported lack of such differences (Henry & Cliffordson, ; Sylvén & Thompson, ). There might be a number of reasons for these conflicting results, for example Kissau and Turnbull () review a number of studies that reveal that male learners perceive certain languages as more ‘feminine’ than others.…”

Motivation and Foreign Language Learning

“…While the proportion believing that they learnt equally much English as a result of school work as they did outside school was roughly similar (girls 35%, boys 33%), striking differences can be seen in the categories 'learn most of my English outside school' (girls 8%, boys 14%) and 'learn all, or nearly all of my English outside school' (girls 3%, boys 6%). Given that in a recent study Henry and Cliffordson (2013) failed to find any gender-related differences in Swedish 9 th grade students' ideal English-speaking/using selves, the rather dramatic divergences in students' beliefs about learning English warrant further investigation. In the sections that follow the theories previously discussed are revisited, this time considering whether gender-related differences generally found in self-efficacy, attribution and self-theory research have the potential to shed light on differences in girls' and boys' beliefs about learning English.…”

Exploring Affective Factors in L3 Learning: CLIL vs. Non-CLIL

“…Thus, although there is no general agreement on this as yet, female students are mostly reported to have more positive language learning attitudes and be more strongly motivated than male students (Merisuo-Storm 2007 ;Pavlenko and Piller 2008 ), although such differences have not always proved signifi cant (Weseley 2012 ;Henry and Cliffordson 2013 ).…”