Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.38003/zrffs.14.1
Analysis of Motivation for Learning French and Italian in the Croatian Educational Context
Ariana Violić-Koprivec
orcid.org/0000-0002-4685-6555
; University of Dubrovnik
Jasenka Maslek
; University of Dubrovnik
Abstract
In the process of foreign language learning, motivation, as one of the affective factors, plays a very important role. Motivation is constantly changing during the learning process. It is associated with dynamic changes and various internal and external influences students are exposed to. Hence, in this process there are frequent fluctuations in the level of motivation (Dörnyei and Skehan 2005). In its affective appearance, motivation significantly influences the manner and course of foreign language acquisition, determining its intensity, type, duration and effectiveness. This paper is a follow-up to the research on motivation to learn French and Italian conducted during the school year 2019/2020 at a vocational high school in Dubrovnik. The paper sets forth the results of a survey conducted on a sample of two groups of vocational high school students, one learning French (N=124) and the other learning Italian (N=146). An adapted questionnaire, originally designed by Mihaljević Djigunović (1998) to measure both the type and intensity of students’ motivation to learn a foreign language, was used as a measuring instrument. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The aim was to examine the relationship between motivation and the following factors: gender, length of study, grades, exposure to extracurricular activities as well as residence in French/Italian speaking countries. The research results showed a significant correlation between motivation and these variables in the group of French students, while in the case of Italian students the correlation of these variables was observed only on particular scales of motivation. Research studies addressing the issue of learning these two foreign languages in the Croatian context are scarce. Therefore, the obtained results contribute to the knowledge about the motivation to learn French and Italian as foreign languages and can be useful to SLA researchers and foreign language teachers.
Keywords
affective factors; motivation; French as a foreign language; Italian as a foreign language; gender; length of study; grade; exposure to the out-of-class content
Hrčak ID:
267503
URI
Publication date:
17.12.2021.
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