THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE
OF PROMOTING ADULT LANGUAGE LEARNING
Margrit Wetter (Università degli studi "G
d'Annunzio" Chieti, Italy)
1 The importance of widening adult participation
in language learning
The European Commission in its 1995 White Paper
on Teaching and Learning: towards the learning
society sets an objective that all E.U. citizens
should be proficient in three European languages:
their mother tongue and two other languages. While
in many E.U. countries this objective is on the
way to being realized for young people – thanks
also to the 1995 resolution of the Council of the
E.U. that suggested that "pupils should, as
a general rule, have the opportunity of learning
two languages of the Union other than their mother
tongue” - this objective is far from being
realized for adults. As a matter of fact, young
people are the ones who have derived most benefit
from the resolution, as they are already learning
languages at school. But in the past in many European
countries language teaching at school had been
neglected. This is reflected in a much lower level
of language skills among older age groups. Current
statistics (Special Eurobarometer "Europeans
and Languages") show that the knowledge of
European languages (i.e. the ability to take part
in a conversation in a language other than the
mother tongue) decreases with age:
aged 15-24 years: 65%,
aged 25-39 years: 55%
aged 40-54 years: 43%
aged 55 +: 28%
The difference between the different age groups is striking. It shows how necessary
it is to create opportunities to learn languages for adults who never had the
opportunity to learn them at school, as well as to create the opportunity for
those who already have some knowledge of a language to improve upon it.
2. Investigation into adult language learning
motivation
Motivation for language learning is a primary concern.
It is important to know the motives, at least in
general terms, that make adults want to learn or
improve their knowledge of languages. Only through
understanding these motives can allow successful
language learning be promoted. Modern language
teaching must be learner oriented. As adults often
give up their free time to learn languages they
want to be informed and decide on the content of
what they learn.
A first answer to the question as to why adult
Europeans1 could want to learn languages is given
by the above-mentioned Eurobarometer report. It
inquires into what would be the motivation if people
were to learn a foreign language. The first motivation
is "to use it on holidays abroad", followed
by "personal satisfaction", "to
use it at work", "to understand people
from other countries", "to get a better
job".
Surprisingly, the main reason that parents
were in favour of their children learning European
languages is "to improve their job opportunities".
That shows that adult motivation is different from
the principal motive that adults as parents have
in mind for their children. Adults indicated intrinsic
factors for themselves at the first two positions,
while extrinsic factors are predominant for their
children.
For the Eurobarometer survey, the persons interviewed
had to indicate priorities on answers supplied
by the survey. Not all possible answers about motivation
are listed. So for instance another quite frequent
motivation is the possibility of reading a text
or a viewing a film in the original language. Another
set of motives is to be ready to participate in
mobility programs within Europe, to learn a friend's
or a partner's language (the number of international
marriages and partnerships is increasing), to be
able to help children with homework, to spend free
time in a useful leisure activity, to do something
to keep the brain working, etc.
In recent years there has been a rather lively
discussion about L22 motivation, centered on 'extrinsic'
and 'intrinsic' or 'instrumental' and 'integrative'
factor (Gardner, 1985, Dörnyei, 1994). So
Noels, Clément and Pelletier (1999) argued
that while extrinsic factors tend to be less associated
with the sustained effort or competence of L2,
intrinsic factors favour a more involved learning.
Hotho (1999) who charted students on an 11 week
German course in a German university also came
to a similar conclusion. Over the weeks she noticed
changes concerning motivation: "learning something
new" raised from rank order 3 to 1 while "jobs/career" dropped
from 1 to 5. The result that motivation diminished,
when the learning subject was perceived as difficult
is also revealing.
In adult education, apart from intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation, there is a third kind of motivation:
Adults may learn languages for social reasons.
While attending language classes they meet people
in a semi-social context. According to Corder (2002:
17) adults whose learning motivations are social "often
turn out to be the best students" and "they
are often keen to make the most of their opportunities".
Now these three groups of motivations are generalisations.
Two or even all three motivation-types can interact
at the same time.
Language courses attract people with the most heterogeneous
motivations. This requires adequate planning in
order to divide language learners in homogeneous
learner-centered groups. The offers of language
courses must differentiate between goals, contents,
levels, methods, number of participants, equipment,
etc. To list just a few examples: teaching communicative
skills demands different teaching strategies from
teaching reading skills, or teaching everyday language
again requires a different approach from teaching
language for special purposes. If courses do not
correspond to the learners' expectations, learners
will soon lose interest and may drop out.
The task of language teachers is not only to teach
languages; they are also required to help and encourage
learners throughout their learning development.
Their responsibility does not end after the lesson,
but their task is also to give advise about effective
language learning for improving at home. A fundamental
task for language teachers is to teach learners
how to learn autonomously, to transmit learning
strategies and techniques, which allow learners
to acquire the expected competence individually.
During the learning process learners need to have
feedback about their learning progress. Apart from
tests, a helpful way for learners to survey their
learning progress is to keep an account of their
learning progress in a register. At present the
European Language Portfolio offers the most complete
framework of levels of attainment, criteria of
performance and formal qualification equivalence
whose two main aims are:
a) to motivate learners by acknowledging their
efforts to extend and diversify their language
skills at all levels;
b) to provide a record of the linguistic and cultural
skills they have acquired (to be consulted, for
example, when they are moving to a higher learning
level or seeking employment at home or abroad)
(Schneider and Lenz 2001).
Within the Portfolio in its three components (Language
Passport, Language Biography, Dossier), "The
Language Passport provides an overview of the individual’s
proficiency in different languages at a given point
in time" (Little and Perclova, 2002: 1). It
records the learner's developing linguistic skills
by engaging him/her in self-assessment based on
the Council of Europe's common reference levels.
The Language Biography "plays a pivotal role
providing a focus on the reflective processes that
mediate between the language passport and the dossier" (Little
and Perclova, 2002: 2) in which learners keep outcomes,
documents, examples, letters etc. of their own
work. Stating aims, setting goals, keeping records
of what they retain is important during the learning
process, referring to learning success is a fundamental
step to maintaining and enhancing motivation and
to successful language learning. It is proof of
already acquired knowledge, whereby the learning
process becomes more transparent. Moreover, concrete
evidence concerning improvement in language acquisition
builds learners' self-confidence and security in
their learning process.
1 We speak here of people and not of adults,
as the report was not designed to analyse only
adults' attitudes but the attitude of all E.U.
persons. The sample consists of more than 15'900
persons in all E.U. countries.
2 L2, abbreviation for 'second language':
the language learned after the first language.
