The interaction between different attitudinal and motivational constructs in young learners of a second foreign language

Reports indicate that foreign languages other than English are facing challenges in European educational systems (European Commission, 2012). While young learners' motivation to learn a second foreign language (SFL) is often reported to be low, motivation to learn English is high (Eurobarometer 2012). Only few studies, however, have examined how learners' motivations to learn different languages influence each other (Csizer & Dörnyei, 2005; Csizér & Lukács, 2010). In Sweden, Henry (2012) found that the motivation to learn English was related negatively to the motivation to learn an SFL. This interpreted as an "English-is-enough"-attitude has also been argued to particularly usurp SFL instrumental motivations (Gardner & Lambert, 1972; Oakes, 2013). However, different SFLs differ in popularity in secondary schools (Granfeldt, Sayehli & Ågren, forthcoming). In Sweden, reports describing an increased interest in Spanish (as compared to German and French) argue for integrative motivational reasons (Riis & Francia, 2013). Also gender usually affects language choice and learning motivations (Henry, 2010). The research questions of the present study were therefore a) how do attitudes to English and gender interact with SFL motivations b) are there motivational differences between learners of different SFLs. The study used questionnaires to measure motivational, attitudinal and affectual constructs in 9th grade Swedish SFL learners (N=134). Preliminary results showed only weak "English is enough" attitudes (r = -.21, p=.001). Spanish SFL learners were more instrumentally motivated than learners of German and French. A gender effect showed that females had more positive ideal L3 selves (Dörnyei, 2009), but experienced more classroom anxiety (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986) and were less willing to communicate in the SFL (McCroskey and Richmond, 1991) than males. The results will be discussed in view of how different attitudinal and motivational constructs interact and, whether there are general or language-specific motivational profiles across learners.