Motivation and Attitudes towards Second Language Learning at Primary Schools; A Comparison of Teaching Programmes

Abstract

Motivation is the key to accomplish long-term goals such as second language learning. A positive attitude and motivation help students to put effort into studying. However, does a higher level of motivation also mean a higher level in language skills, and can a learning environment or a specific learning method stimulate the L2 motivation? At Dutch primary schools there are many different programmes to learn English as a second language. In this paper two of these programmes will be further analysed, namely; EIBO (Engels in het Basisonderwijs/English in primary Education) where English is taught in grade 7 and 8 only and Early Bird where English is taught from the first grade onwards. This study aims to answer the question whether there is a correlation between motivation and attitudes towards learning English as a second language in both programmes and how these levels of motivation and attitudes correlate with the pupils’ language skills. The pupils who participated in this study were all tested on several language skills and, additionally, filled in a questionnaire on motivation and attitudes. The results show that a correlation between the language tests, the motivational levels and attitudes can be found but these correlations are not substantial in all cases. Furthermore, although the Early Bird pupils seemed to be more positive on almost all motivation and self-perceived competence questions, this difference between EIBO and Early Bird was not significant