A qualitative study of Spanish University foreign language students' motivation: interest in foreign affairs, language learning orientation, and responses to authentic input

Abstract

The present study reports the main findings of a survey-based research conducted on Spanish university foreign language students. The goal was to identify a reliable set of learner beliefs (or factors) for that population associated with: (a) motivation, (b) interest in foreign affairs, (c) language learning orientation and (d) disposition to authentic oral and written materials. For this study we recruited a group of 168 Spanish students of English as a foreign language all students of the first year of English for Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Universidad de Oviedo. The qualitative analysis reveals that students rend to have a strong motivation to learn the target language. They show an integrative orientation that coexists with a desire to learn the L2 to achieve some practical goal. Moreover, students rend to show a positive response to oral and written input, willingness to confront authentic input and they rend to use global strategies instead of decoding strategies.