The motivations and identity aspirations of university students of German: a case study in Australia

Abstract

In the English-dominated field of L2 motivation, there is a need for more research on learners of languages other than English. This is particularly important in English-speaking countries, where issues involving the recruitment and retention of language students are pressing. This study discusses the main qualitative findings of a study on the motivations and identity aspirations of university students of German in Australia. The findings obtained through a questionnaire (n = 86) are complemented by in-depth interviews conducted with a small sample of respondents (n = 5). The study shows that learners of German are instrumentally, integratively and intrinsically motivated and wish to shape identities as international professionals with unique linguistic skills (Exotenmotiv, see Riemer 2006), tourists and anti-tourists, bilingual speakers in a monolingual Anglophone context and educated individuals (Bildungs-Selbst, see Busse 2015). This research furthers our knowledge on this learner population in Australia and, more broadly, on Anglophone elective language learners, as well as students of German as a foreign language in other contexts. It also contributes to our understanding of the link between motivation and processes of identity creation and development.

The Impact of Learning English on Chinese Pre-schoolers’ Identity Aspirations

“…Identity has been approached and conceptualized in multiple ways as a lens to understand why language learners invest efforts and resources in learning. In language learning research, identity has been theorized by Norton (2013) as ''how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is structured across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future'' (p. 45; see also Amorati, 2021). This theoretical lens highlights how language learners can choose to position themselves or achieve their desired positioning in relation to the imagined or real social world through investing efforts and resources in learning languages (Darvin & Norton, 2015).…”

Islamic junior high school students’ English proficiency test scores and their L2 motivational self-system: a correlational study

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