Age‐Related Differences in the Motivation of Learning English as a Foreign Language: Attitudes, Selves, and Motivated Learning Behavior

TLDR

The study examines motivation to learn English as a foreign language among secondary school pupils, university students, and adult learners. Data were gathered via questionnaires from 623 Hungarian students. Motivation was mainly driven by language learning attitudes and the Ideal L2 self, with models differing by group: secondary school pupils were influenced by interest in English‑language cultural products, while older learners were additionally affected by international posture.

Abstract

Our study describes the motivation for learning English as a foreign language in three distinct learner populations: secondary school pupils, university students, and adult language learners. Questionnaire data were collected from 623 Hungarian students. The main factors affecting students' second language (L2) motivation were language learning attitudes and the Ideal L2 self, which provides empirical support for the main construct of the theory of the L2 Motivational Self‐System ( Dörnyei, 2005 ). Models of motivated behavior varied across the three investigated learner groups. For the secondary school pupils, it was interest in English‐language cultural products that affected their motivated behavior, whereas international posture as an important predictive variable was only present in the two older age groups.