Motivation: A key to success in the foreign language classroom? A case study on vocational training and higher education English courses

Abstract

[EN] Motivation in the EFL classroom has aroused the interest of researchers in the last 20 years or so with the solely purpose of fostering students’ interest and eagerness to learn a foreign a language (Gardner 2001; 2007, Dörnyei 2001, Dörnyei & Schmidt 2001, Carrió-Pastor & Mestre 2014 among others). This study analyses two groups of students. On the one hand, an intermediate language level Trade Course with ages ranging from 18-23 years old in a vocational training high school and a first year university degree classroom (18-21 years old), both groups in an ESP setting. We tried to observe and analyse the degree of motivation in the English as a Foreign Language classroom in a vocational training high school setting and a university class. A couple of questionnaires have been developed in order to survey these two groups of students in different educational institutions. The results show that university students learning EFL feel more motivated towards language learning than vocational training students due to several reasons that are not exclusively related to the language teacher. Relevant methodologies in which students feel they have an active role in the learning process should be considered.