Resumen de LOTE (Languages Other than English) learners’ investment in learning languages

Juexuan Lu, Lifen He, Qi Shen

• English

  This study draws on the model of language learning investment to explore China’s LOTE (Languages Other than English) students’ learning motivation. Data collected through in-depth interviews with 35 university students were analyzed in an inductive way. The findings show that: (1) the participants invested in learning LOTEs because they had enough affordances (resources applicable to LOTE learning) and/or perceived target language-related benefits (economic, cultural or social ones) from LOTE learning, even though most of our participants were initially involuntary applicants; (2) students were reluctant to invest in learning their target language(s) and merely strove to fulfil their program(s) when they were lacking affordances, perceiving few benefits, or even devalued by the in-context ideologies. These findings provide important implications for LOTE educators to motivate their students, and for policy makers to improve China’s LOTE education.

• 中文

  本研究采用语言学习投资框架来探讨中国非英语学习者的语言学习动机。研究数据来自对35名大学生进行的深度访谈，研究分析以归纳的方式进行。研究结果显示：（1）当学生们占有充足的给养（可用于语言学习的资源）和/或感知到与目的语相关的利益（经济、文化或社会利益）时，他们对非英语学习进行了投资；（2）当缺乏给养或几乎感知不到相关利益，甚至被所处环境的意识形态贬低时，学生们则不情愿投资于目的语，并以完成学业为唯一目标。本研究能提供重要启示，以帮助非英语教师激励学生，及帮助政策制定者改进中国的非英语教育。