Country stereotypes and L2 motivation: A study of French, German and Spanish language learners

The purposes of this study (N=80) were: 1) to explore stereotypes about a target language (TL) country and TL learning motivation among beginner learners of French, German, and Spanish in a big public university in Malaysia, and 2) to examine whether there were relationships between the country ste...

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Main Author: Nikitina, L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.um.edu.my/15324/1/2015_SIL.pdf
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author Nikitina, L.
author_facet Nikitina, L.
author_sort Nikitina, L.
collection UM
description The purposes of this study (N=80) were: 1) to explore stereotypes about a target language (TL) country and TL learning motivation among beginner learners of French, German, and Spanish in a big public university in Malaysia, and 2) to examine whether there were relationships between the country stereotypes and the students’ motivation to learn a TL. To collect data, this study administered a questionnaire to the participants. To achieve the first research purpose, this study employed content analysis, which revealed that the respondents had diverse and overwhelmingly positive images about the TL countries. Interestingly, there were some differences in stereotype content across the three TL countries. For example, while technology-related images were prominent in the data collected from the learners of German, such references lacked among the images reported by the participants learning Spanish or French. As to the second research purpose, the findings of statistical analyses indicated that there were statistically significant and positive relationships between country stereotypes and TL learning motivation. The study concludes with discussing implications of the finding for L2 education.
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spelling um.eprints-153242015-12-28T08:04:34Z http://eprints.um.edu.my/15324/ Country stereotypes and L2 motivation: A study of French, German and Spanish language learners Nikitina, L. HA Statistics L Education (General) PB Modern European Languages PC Romance languages PD Germanic languages The purposes of this study (N=80) were: 1) to explore stereotypes about a target language (TL) country and TL learning motivation among beginner learners of French, German, and Spanish in a big public university in Malaysia, and 2) to examine whether there were relationships between the country stereotypes and the students’ motivation to learn a TL. To collect data, this study administered a questionnaire to the participants. To achieve the first research purpose, this study employed content analysis, which revealed that the respondents had diverse and overwhelmingly positive images about the TL countries. Interestingly, there were some differences in stereotype content across the three TL countries. For example, while technology-related images were prominent in the data collected from the learners of German, such references lacked among the images reported by the participants learning Spanish or French. As to the second research purpose, the findings of statistical analyses indicated that there were statistically significant and positive relationships between country stereotypes and TL learning motivation. The study concludes with discussing implications of the finding for L2 education. 2015-10 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.um.edu.my/15324/1/2015_SIL.pdf Nikitina, L. (2015) Country stereotypes and L2 motivation: A study of French, German and Spanish language learners. Studies in Linguistics, 37. pp. 483-509. https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART002043262
spellingShingle HA Statistics
L Education (General)
PB Modern European Languages
PC Romance languages
PD Germanic languages
Nikitina, L.
Country stereotypes and L2 motivation: A study of French, German and Spanish language learners
title Country stereotypes and L2 motivation: A study of French, German and Spanish language learners
title_full Country stereotypes and L2 motivation: A study of French, German and Spanish language learners
title_fullStr Country stereotypes and L2 motivation: A study of French, German and Spanish language learners
title_full_unstemmed Country stereotypes and L2 motivation: A study of French, German and Spanish language learners
title_short Country stereotypes and L2 motivation: A study of French, German and Spanish language learners
title_sort country stereotypes and l2 motivation a study of french german and spanish language learners
topic HA Statistics
L Education (General)
PB Modern European Languages
PC Romance languages
PD Germanic languages
url http://eprints.um.edu.my/15324/1/2015_SIL.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT nikitinal countrystereotypesandl2motivationastudyoffrenchgermanandspanishlanguagelearners