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8. SHL Learners’ Attitudes and Motivations: Reconciling Opposing Forces
- Georgetown University Press
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C H A P T E R 8 SHL Learners’ Attitudes and Motivations RECONCILING OPPOSING FORCES Cynthia M. Ducar, Bowling Green State University J OSÉ WAS A SECOND-GENERATION MEXICAN AMERICAN, studying Spanish to avoid being made fun of every time he went ‘‘home’’ to Mexico to see his extended family. He did not want to speak pocho Spanish anymore; he wanted to speak real Spanish.1 After all, Spanish was an integral part of his identity , and being accepted by his family as a true Mexican motivated him to study Spanish. A story such as this one is all too common in Spanish heritage language (SHL) classrooms, and it barely touches on the complexity of the issues that this chapter aims to address, namely, the role of attitudes and motivation in the SHL context. Though research in the field of second-language acquisition (SLA) has long established the important, albeit arguably indirect, relationship that attitudes and motivation have on language learning (for overviews, see Baker 1992; Dörnyei 2001; Gardner 1985); corresponding research in the SHL field remains in its infancy (Lynch 2003). Despite the continued boom in SHL research, few studies have undertaken an analysis of the role that SHL learners’ motivations and attitudes play in the acquisition of their heritage language. After defining attitude and motivation from a social psychology perspective, this chapter introduces the reader to the widely researched roles of these two constructs in the field of SLA. The chapter next addresses the important differences that surround both constructs when approached from a heritage language (HL) orientation as opposed to an SLA orientation. After synthesizing the research on attitudes and motivations in the HL and SHL fields, a call to critically revisit the methodologies employed to study the constructs is issued. The limitations of the current body of research are addressed, and suggestions for future research are offered. 161 162 CYNTHIA M. DUCAR MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDE IN SLA It is undeniable that the vast amount of research on the role of motivations and attitudes in SLA has been dominated by Gardner’s (1985) socioeducational model of second-language learning. Before delving into the major findings of that body of research, however, it is imperative to first define the two constructs that this chapter and that research investigate. Motivation, following Gardner (1985, 10), is defined as ‘‘the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language, plus favorable attitudes toward the language.’’ Thus, it is understood that motivation subsumes the idea of attitudes, and, as such, has a stronger role in final achievement in language learning than do attitudes (Masgoret and Gardner 2003). That said, the role of attitudes has also been widely investigated and found to have a robust, albeit indirect, correlational effect on ultimate acquisition (Baker 1992; Dörnyei 2001; Gardner 1985). Here, attitude refers to ‘‘an evaluative reaction to some referent or attitude object, inferred on the basis of the individual’s belief or opinions about the referent’’ (Gardner 1985, 9). Though the roles of attitudes and motivation have been studied in an array of different subject areas and learning contexts within the sociopsychological framework, the roles of both constructs have been found to be stronger in language learning contexts than in other academic subjects (Gardner 1985). Since the seminal publications of Gardner and Lambert (1959, 1972) and Gardner (1985) on motivation, the topic has frequently been treated in the SLA literature as a dichotomous construct involving two distinct yet not necessarily separate ideas, namely, integrative and instrumental motivation. Following Gardner (1985), integrative motivation refers to an interest in the second language (L2) due to a desire to associate with people who use the language; clearly, this idea is relevant to the SHL field, given that SHL students are often members of the ‘‘target-language community.’’ Instrumental motivation, conversely, refers to the practical value associated with L2 acquisition: increased job or business opportunities, passing a class, meeting a requirement, and so on.2 Although at first glance instrumental motivation may intuitively appear to play a lesser role in SHL (re)acquisition, and indeed has often been found to play a lesser role in the previous SLA literature, this construct and its combined role with that of integrative motivation have been highlighted in recent research, particularly in the HL field. Although much of the SLA and HL research has continued to treat all the above-mentioned concepts as static, discrete, noninteracting entities, recent studies have stressed the...