The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Carol A. Chapelle
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processes, and the early stages of L2 learning: A critical overview. Second Language Research, 30(2), 111–27.
2 Rebuschat, P. (Ed.). (2015). Implicit and explicit learning of languages. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.
Attitudes and Motivation in Bilingual Education
DAVID LASAGABASTER
Introduction
Languages play a paramount role in any society in general and in education in particular. A student enrolled in a bilingual school in which different languages are in contact soon realizes that society, family, peers, and school all place importance on these languages. The student's own assessment and others' influence, together with the context, the information, and the knowledge they acquire will shape their attitudes toward these languages and their motivation for learning them.
Research into attitudes and motivation flourished in the 1950s and, since then, all the major theories and models of second language acquisition have underscored their importance. It has become clear that attitudes affect motivation, and the interrelationship between these two concepts has been widely acknowledged in literature on the subject.
Attitudes
The popularity of the concept of attitude is confirmed by its use in many diverse fields of research: education, sociology, sociolinguistics, social psychology, and political science, to name but a few. Although from an etymological point of view attitude was originally a technical term in art for the posture of a figure in a statue or painting, its current psychological meaning has imposed over the physical one. Among the many available definitions, Ajzen's (1988, p. 4) is probably the most widely quoted one due to its brevity and clarity: “a disposition to respond favourably or unfavourably to an object, person, institution or event.”
Attitudes are not innate but rather acquired and can be learned, and through learning they change and evolve. Attitudes are mainly social and we acquire them through direct or indirect social interaction, which is why the social context plays such a significant role in their analysis. Attitudes are determined by such influential factors as the family, work, religion, mass media, friends, or education, to the extent that individuals tend to adjust their attitudes so that they match those of their social group. So the origins of our attitudes and changes in them can be affected by different agents, and among these institutions are powerful influences. Every individual develops in a social context where institutions are very present, and nowadays most people spend a large part of their lives in education‐related institutions.
Motivation
Motivation is a complex psychological construct that acts as a direct determinant of second language (L2) achievement, which is why much attention has been paid to this individual variable in second language acquisition literature. Gardner (1985, p. 10) defines motivation as “the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity.”
The widespread interest in motivation is reflected in the hundreds of books and articles published on the topic over the past decade (Dörnyei, Henry, & Muir, 2016). Although the factors that may account for individual differences in L2 learning are as manifold as there are people, motivation is crucial, especially in classroom language learning. Studies carried out in many different contexts have demonstrated that there is a clear correlation between motivation and language achievement.
For decades motivation was regarded as a relatively stable learner trait, but from the 1990s onward research on motivation has undergone a shift toward a more dynamic construct. Although language learners are usually highly motivated when they set out to learn a foreign language, the challenge lies in maintaining that motivation. Yet the dynamic character and temporal variation inherent to students' motivation have been somewhat neglected in studies so far. The mastery of an L2 is a long process which usually takes several years and in which students' motivation fluctuates (Dörnyei, MacIntyre, & Henry, 2015). Research is also currently more grounded in the context where the learning takes place and Ushioda (2009, p. 216) in fact suggests that “we need to understand second language learners as people, and as people who are necessarily located in particular cultural and historical contexts.”
Different Motivational Models
The different models of second language acquisition have traditionally highlighted the importance of attitudes and motivation. Due to space constraints, reference will be made to only two bilingual education‐friendly models: Gardner's (1985) socioeducational model of second language acquisition, and Dörnyei's (2005) L2 motivational self system.
Gardner's model has been thoroughly researched and tested. It is divided in four stages, with the individual's social and cultural background (including the home, neighbors, friends, and the wider community) representing its base. The second stage includes four individual variables that will affect language learning: language aptitude, intelligence, motivation or attitudes, and situational anxiety. The third stage distinguishes between the formal and informal language‐learning environments and, finally, the fourth stage has to do with the linguistic (bilingual proficiency) and nonlinguistic (attitudes or cultural values) outcomes. A learner's attitudes can change and are conceived as having both a triggering and a product role, as this is a cyclical—not static—model in which attitudes and motivation can be both a cause and an effect. According to Gardner, motivation involves “the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of language learning plus favourable attitudes towards learning the language” (1985, p. 11). One of the main results of Gardner's and his associates' work was the development of the “Attitude/Motivation Test Battery,” a standardized test which encompasses the different components of Gardner's theory of L2 motivation.
Gardner claims that the reasons for learning a second language show two main orientations. The first one is known as integrative orientation, a term which indicates an interest in the people and culture represented by the other group. The second orientation is instrumental, learning the language for pragmatic or useful purposes such as economic advantages or better job prospects and promotion. These orientations are independent of intelligence and aptitude. Gardner objects to the misinterpretation of his theory as a dichotomy of integrative and instrumental orientation, as this dichotomy is only at the orientation level and is not part of the core motivation component.
Nevertheless, the distinction between the integrative and the instrumental orientation is often hard to define. An integrative motive may have instrumental strands or components, making this dichotomy oversimplistic. This is acknowledged in Dörnyei's model, which redefines these motives in terms of perceptions of the self and the ideal self.
Dörnyei's L2 motivational self system, albeit firmly rooted in L2 research, stems from psychological theories of the self and consists of three components (Dörnyei, 2005, p. 106):
1 Ideal L2 self: If the person we would like to become speaks an L2, the ideal L2 self becomes a powerful motivator to learn the L2. This component encompasses the traditional integrative and internalized instrumental motives.
2 Ought‐to L2 self: This component refers to the attributes one believes one ought to possess (i.e., various duties, obligations, or responsibilities) in order to avoid possible negative outcomes. It includes the most extrinsic (i.e., less internalized) types of instrumental motives.
3 L2 learning experience: The last component concerns situation‐specific motives related to the immediate learning environment and experience (i.e., the influence of the curriculum, the teacher, the peer group, and the experience of success or failure).
In this model, motivation would involve the desire to find harmony between one's current self and the ideal or ought‐to self by reducing discrepancy between our actual and ideal selves. Since young learners cannot consider multiple perspectives of the self, this approach is considered to be appropriate from adolescence onward. It is