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Students’ Motivation to Learn Foreign Languages in Tertiary Education

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Foreign Language Teaching in Romanian Higher Education

Part of the book series: Multilingual Education ((MULT,volume 27))

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Abstract

This chapter aims to investigate the motivation of the students attending three different undergraduate programs at the Faculty of Letters from Transilvania University of Braşov, Romania, in terms of the students’ reasons for choosing the programs, changes in terms of their motivational level, past learning experiences, future professional plans, and demotivational factors, which are all related to learning foreign languages. The data for this cross-sectional study were collected by means of students’ interviews, students’ questionnaires and a teacher’s questionnaire.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Letters, Transilvania University of Braşov, Braşov, Romania

    Gabriela Chefneux

Authors
  1. Gabriela Chefneux
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gabriela Chefneux .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication, Faculty of International Business and Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

    Lucia-Mihaela Grosu-Rădulescu

Appendices

Appendix 1 Interview Questions

1.1 Motivation Level

  1. 1.

    From a scale of 0 (not at all) to10 (extremely motivated) how motivated do you think you are?

  2. 2.

    What is, in your opinion, the source of your motivation?/ What motivates you to learn?

  3. 3.

    Why is studying the foreign language important to you? Please give 5 reasons

  4. 4.

    Is your motivational level constant?

  5. 5.

    When was your motivation level to learn the highest?

  6. 6.

    Has your motivation to learn foreign languages changed over the last 3 years?

  7. 7.

    Please name five motivational factors that apply to you in decreasing order.

1.2 Professional Plans

  1. 8.

    Why did you choose this programme?

  2. 9.

    How do you feel about your choice now?

  3. 10.

    What is the level of difficulty of the programme you are studying, in your opinion 0 – not at all difficult 5 very difficult?

  4. 11.

    Are your expectations before becoming a student matched by what you are studying now?

  5. 12.

    In your opinion is there any relationship between what you are learning now and your future plans/goals?

  6. 13.

    What do you want to do in the future? What if you don’t manage to do it?

  7. 14.

    In your opinion, does your chosen future profession have a high social status in our country?

1.3 Sources of Motivation

  1. 15.

    Are you motivated by the topics, teachers, colleagues, classroom atmosphere?

  2. 16.

    Can you please name 5 demotivating factors?

  3. 17.

    Is there any connection between how you did in high-school and how you perform now?

  4. 18.

    Are the teaching materials motivating in your opinion?

  5. 19.

    Is the teaching style motivating in your opinion?

  6. 20.

    Do your colleagues motivate you and if yes, how?

  7. 21.

    Why have you chosen to study the two foreign languages?/ English (American studies)

  8. 22.

    Is there any difference between learning the foreign language and other subjects you study (theory of literature, for example)?

  9. 23.

    Do you feel the same level of motivation to study all the subjects taught during the programme?

  10. 24.

    Do you practice the foreign language you study outside school?

  11. 25.

    Who is responsible for your motivational level?

Appendix 2

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Chefneux, G. (2018). Students’ Motivation to Learn Foreign Languages in Tertiary Education. In: Grosu-Rădulescu, LM. (eds) Foreign Language Teaching in Romanian Higher Education. Multilingual Education, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93329-0_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93329-0_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93328-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93329-0

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