Motivation for Second Language Learning: Displaced Ukrainian Primary School Students’ Experiences of Learning German in Swiss Schools

Abstract

Drawing on extensive research on second language (L2) learning and motivation and based on a longitudinal study of displaced Ukrainian children’s perspective on Swiss primary schools and learning German as a second language, the author explores socio-contextual factors that play a significant role in shaping displaced children’s motivation to learn German in the initial stages of their placement in Swiss schools. The exploratory study, which was carried out within the framework of a qualitative methodology, revealed multiple factors that influence displaced children's motivation for L2 learning in the context of German-Swiss diglossia in schools in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Based on the ‘person-in-context’ relational view of motivation, the author focuses on how individual learners perceive their learning context, their L2 learning experiences, and how their perceptions and interactions with the L2 learning environment affect their L2 motivation and learning behavior in the initial stages of placement in the host country schools. The data obtained by semi-structured interviews with displaced children and their parents are contextualized by classroom observations of the participants in different learning settings, which allows the author to focus on the learner-in-classroom context and contextually situated motivation while longitudinally collected data enable the author to address motivational developments in individual learners over time. Multiple motivational influences inductively derived from the data are grouped into four main categories: L2 learning setting, L2 learning methods, relationships with peers, and parental involvement. Qualitative content analysis of the data reveals that the effects of the L2 learning setting and peer groups are the strongest compared to other learner-external factors and vary within the research period. The study also confirms the importance of successful adjustment of displaced learners to a diglossic school environment for the development of L2 motivation.