Paper short abstract:

The study concentrates on the motivation of students majoring in teaching Japanese in Germany. Students will be interviewed on their motivation as learners as well as on their motivation to become teachers. Findings will be related to motivation theories and other surveys.

Paper long abstract:

Learner motivation is an important factor for success in foreign language learning and has thus been researched for several languages. Some of these studies concentrate primarily on students' motives for studying a foreign language (Busse & Williams 2010, Schmidt 2016), while others focus on how teachers can enhance their students' perseverence (McEown et al. 2014).

My study considers motivation on the base of the definition given by Dörnyei & Ushioda (2011: 4), i.e. not only as a choice to learn Japanese, but also as persistence in learning Japanese and the effort expended on learning Japanese. On the other hand, learning is also influenced by the learner's environment (e.g. impact of the teacher, the curriculum, the peer group). Thus, teacher motivation is also assumed to be an important facet of learner motivation (cf. Müller & Hanfstingl 2010: 5). In the actual study, I will explore the motivation of students enrolled in a Japanese teaching education program in Germany. This approach should allow for an evaluation of both learning and teaching motivation. The study aims at investigating the actual motives of the students in comparison to earlier quantitative motivational studies related to other languages and will give evidence for Dörnyei's (2009: 29) concept of the Ideal L2 Self, Ought-to L2 Self and L2 Learning Experience as well as for the teacher's role as facilitator of motivation in order to attain this Ideal Self.

References

• Busse, V. & M. Williams: Why German? Motivation of students studying German at English universities. The Language Learning Journal, 38:1, 67-85.

• Dörnyei, Z. & E. Ushioda (2011): Teaching and Researching Motivation. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd..

• Dörnyei, Z.: The L2 Motivational Self System. Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (ed. by Z. Dörnyei), 9-42.

• McEown, M. et al. (2014): Students' self-determined and integrative orientations and teachers' motivational support in a JFL context. System 45, 227-241.

• Müller, Florian & Barbara Hanfstingl (2010): Teaching motivation. JERO 2:2, 5-8.

• Schmidt, G. (2016): Motivation zum Fremdsprachenstudium in einem englischsprachigen Land: Das Beispiel Australien. Fremdsprachen lernen und lehren 45: 2, 62-77.