Multilingualism & Motivation in Language Classrooms in England

Although languages education in English schools has been in a difficult positionsince 2004, when the study of a language after the age of 14 was made optional,young people are (or can be) exposed to more languages than ever before asschool populations in England become increasingly multilingual. As such, in thispaper we draw on self-determination theory to measure student motivation andinvestigate links between motivation and students’ multilingualism. Using itemsdrawn from established self-determination theory instruments alongside theUngspråk questionnaire developed by Haukås et al, we conducted an onlinequestionnaire with 422 students between the ages of 11–16 from 16 schools ina largely monolingual area of England. Between group comparisons (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests) found that students with more multilinguallinguistic lives had more autonomous motivation and more positive beliefsabout languages, but that other characteristic such as gender and school yearhad little impact.