Students’ Motivation in Choosing to Study Less Commonly Taught Language at a Global University
Year: 2024
Type: conference-paper
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The article examines the motivational factors that have the greatest and least influence on students’ choice to study less commonly taught language(s) at the University of Washington. In 2023, a five-part online questionnaire was used to collect 88 students’ responses. The main part of the questionnaire consists of 46 motivational factors grouped into five thematic groups: Advertisements of language courses and language learning; prior knowledge of the learning process of the target language; positive previous experience in learning languages and prior knowledge of/about the target language; language speakers, their communities in the US and worldwide; the use of language, its functionality; future perspective. Students were asked to measure the importance of each factor on a five-point scale. In addition, 26 students in the course “Latvian Literary and Cultural History” were surveyed, using open-ended questions to find out their language knowledge, language-learning experience, and beliefs about the value of language knowledge and learning at the university level. The factors rated as extremely important in choosing to study a language were Interest in languages (63% of 88 responses), Traveling, studying, or living in places where the target language is spoken (57%), and Learning about other people and their culture (41%). In turn, the factors least influential in students’ choice to study language(s) were Regular posts about the course / language on social media (51% of respondents), Communication with relatives in their native / heritage language (46%), and Option to choose the number of credits (e.g., 3 or 5) (46%). Such results indicate that students’ intrinsic motivation has higher influence on their choice to study a language.
Author: Solvita Burr
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4404134338