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Kata Csizér and Zoltán Dörnyei: Language learning attitudes and motivation among primary school children

The paper aims at investigating foreign language attitudes and motivation among primary school children in Hungary in the 1990s. The basis of the analysis is survey data collected from 8,593 13/14-year-old pupils in Hungary on two occasions, in 1993 and in 1999, targeting five foreign languages: English, German, French, Italian, and Russian. Cluster analysis revealed that students could be arranged into four distinct motivational groups with two harmonious groups containing students of low and high motivation as well as with two groups showing discrepancies in terms of integrative and instrumental motivation compared to the other motivation-related variables. Explaining these discrepancies we employed a psychological framework and answers were looked for in the psychology of the self. Additional results revealed that the vast majority of students were highly motivated to learn at least one of the foreign languages investigated. On the other hand, about one fifth of the students did not belong to anyof the highly motivated groups, and it was reasoned that these students will not acquire foreign languages in the future unless their motivational dispositions change.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 102. Number 3. 333-353. (2002)

Address for correspondence: Csizér Kata, H­2030 Érd, Lakatos u. 44. Zoltán Dörnyei, School of English Studies University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD United Kingdom.

 
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Magyar Tudományos Akadémia