Motivation and Attitude for the Acquisition of Language in Primary School Students

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Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres

Memòria del Treball de Fi de Grau

Motivation and Attitude for the Acquisition of Language in Primary School Students

Maria de les Neus Colom Hurtado

Grau d’Estudis Anglesos

Any acadèmic 2018-19

DNI de l’alumne:43206430X

Treball tutelat per Maria Juan Garau

Departament de Filologia Espanyola, Moderna i Clàssica

S'autoritza la Universitat a incloure aquest treball en el Repositori Institucional per a la seva consulta en accés obert i difusió en línia, amb finalitats exclusivament acadèmiques i d'investigació

Autor Tutor Sí No Sí No

Paraules clau del treball:

Attitude, Motivation, Language Acquisition, Learning Environment, Irish Language x

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Abstract

The terms motivation and attitude have been studied for many years in relation to second language acquisition and their influence on language learning. It is true that for a language to be acquired both motivation and attitude have to be positive, for this reason, the learning environment plays a key role in the process.

The aim of this paper is to examine the perception that primary school students in Ireland have when learning both Irish and English. In order to complete this objective a study was carried out in Timoleague NS to 5^th and 6^th class students. A questionnaire on motivation and attitude was the instrument of the study.

After analysing the results, the conclusions obtained proved that regarding Irish learning, there is still room for improvement and, although students showed positive attitudes towards the language, the lack of motivation is leading to detrimental effects on their learning.

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Index

1. Introduction 5

2. The Irish Language 7

2.1. Current Situation of the Irish Language 8

2.2. 20-Years Strategy Plan (2010-2030) 9

2.3. Primary School Curriculum 10

3. The Concepts of Motivation and Attitude 11

3.1. Motivation 11

3.2. Attitude 14

4. The Study 16

4.1.The Instrument 16

4.2.The Study 17

5. Conclusions 24

6. Bibliography 27

7. Annex 29

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1. Introduction

The terms motivation and attitude had been studied and analysed during decades by scholars. Regarding Second Language Learning, both have acquired huge importance in the field, and different studies had been undergone in order to go in depth about how motivation and attitude can interfere in the process of acquiring a new language.

After completing research on the topic and having examined different studies, it is evident that motivation and attitude play a key role in L2 acquisition. It is worth mentioning that both terms do not necessarily go together, for a learner can have positive attitude when learning a language, but if there is nothing that truly motivates him or her, the language learning would not be as successful as expected.

The intention of this paper is to shed light to the above mentioned by carrying out a study in a bilingual school in Ireland. Actually, in Ireland all schools are bilingual as both English and Irish languages are being taught. Normally, English is the language of instruction whereas Irish is the second language learnt at school; however, around the country, Gaelscoils, schools were the language of instruction is Irish, are present. The school where the study was completed is Timoleague NS, which is a primary school, located in Timoleague village, in county Cork. It is an English-medium school and the children learn Irish as a second language. The study aimed to examine the opinions that the students from 5^th and 6^th class have towards both languages.

As a minority language, the Irish is not regarded in a high position from the students’

point of view, as the majority of them conceive the learning of this language as imposed but not as something to enrich themselves with. For this reason, extra effort has to be made to change the attitude the children have towards the learning of that language.

Motivation here also plays a key role, if the children develop their motives to study the language, the learning process would improve. Teachers and families should become fully aware that at both school and home, Irish should not be set aside.

On the other hand, English is in a better position in comparison to Irish. Being the language the children speak every day at home, with their family and friends, provokes on them more positive attitudes. In this case, the learning process is completely different from Irish as English is the medium language of the school. Actually, it is difficult to foster the students’ motivation towards a language they already know; however, teachers do their best to encourage the pupils’ motivation.

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6 The first part of this work is going to present the current situation of the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland. It will also refer to the history of the Irish language, a brief summary of the Irish education and an overall review of the Curriculum focusing on the 5^th and 6^th class specific aspects. To foster the use of Irish in all aspects of society, the Government came up with the ‘20-years Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030’. The objectives of this plan are going to be exposed in the second part of the paper.

In the second part, an analysis on both motivation and attitude will be carried out in order to understand better what the children need when learning a new language. For the purpose of the study, a questionnaire was handed to those mentioned classes (5^th and 6^th) containing questions regarding motivation and attitude; therefore, a profound research on the topic was needed.

The third part will contain the development of the study. An analysis of the results will be carried out. The study contained a questionnaire divided in questions related to English and Irish, and the answers were given following a 5-point Likert-scale. At the end of each part, the students were asked to answer two questions giving their opinions, and eventually, the answers provided resulted very helpful for the understanding of the results.

The last part of this paper will contain the conclusions obtained from the study. Following some researchers’ discoveries, the results are better understood. After reviewing the current situation of both languages in the Republic of Ireland, and after all the efforts put by the Government to change the situation of the Irish, the results of the study would shed some light towards this issue.

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2. The Irish Language

2.1 Current Situation of the Irish Language

The Irish language is the national first official language in the Republic of Ireland.

Curiously, it is the first language for a 5% of the Irish population, and less than 30% of it has the Irish as a second language. The language is present in each department of the Government and in each primary and secondary school, where it is compulsory.

Historically, the Irish language has struggled to survive all the oppressions suffered by the different invaders, yet, thanks to the effort put by both the natives and the Government, it managed to survive, and nowadays, although not being the first language of the country, it is still being present in the schools and public entities.

Related to that, it is important to say that isle of Ireland has been conquered and has been under the rule of colonialism for many centuries. As Ann O’Byrne (2007) states, in the year 1841 in Ireland there was an estimated number of 50% of the population that still spoke Irish (O’Byrne 2007, 312), but it was after the famine (1845-1847) that the number of Irish speakers decreased to a 23%. When the Independence came, the natives started the recovery of the language. It was the feeling of becoming one united nation again that fostered that recovery (O’Byrne 2007, 312).

A revival on Irish literature arose in the nineteenth century and helped it to become again part of the culture; however, it was not enough because ‘it (Irish) had not successfully resisted the imperial power of England’ (O’Byrne 2007, 315). However, the Grammar and Social Identities 315 Orthography of Irish: the Official Standard was finally published in 1958, and the Official Standard language was introduced in schools by 1963.

Nevertheless, since 1927 the Irish language had been taught in secondary schools, and in 1933 it was introduced as a requirement for the School Leaving Certificate (O’Byrne 2007, 316). Although obtaining the official status, the expectations of the aforesaid revitalization of the Irish was never accomplished (O’Byrne 2007, 315-16).

During a long period of time, the English was conceived as the elite language, and even the natives refused to learn Irish. It might be for this reason that the natives found it an imposition when the Government wanted to introduced it in each area of their society.

However, it is true that, eventually, the Irish population realized of the importance of securing the legacy of their own culture and language. In 2017, Slatinská and Pecníková,

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8 published the article “The Role of Irish Language Teaching: Cultural Identity Formation or Language Revitalization?”, in which they explore the actual situation of the language in both the Irish society and education. The authors state that nowadays it exists a shared and a common feeling around the country: that the Irish language is the symbol of the Irish identity, and the loss of the language would involve the loss of typical traditions and of their cultural heritage (Slatinská and Pecníková 2017, 319).

For all what the Irish language had gone through, and yet, it managed to survive, there was a need to do something not to let the language become extinct. For this reason, in 2010, the Irish Government set a ‘20-year Strategy for the Irish Language (2010-1030)’, which is going to be presented in the next point.

2.2. 20-Years Strategy for the Irish Language (2010-2030)

What the Government aims with this strategy is to normalize the use of the Irish language by increasing its usage in different areas. One of the main interests of this plan is that as much population as possible becomes bilingual in both languages (Department of CHG 2015, 4).

Regarding education, the Strategy’s plan is to introduce Irish language as obligatory from primary school to Leaving Certificate level. As specified in the original document of the Strategy Plan (Department of CHG 2015, 4), the focus of the curriculum is going to be mostly on the oral and written language. Moreover, two other aspects are mentioned in the Plan: the first one is that teachers have the job to transmit the pupils the importance of the Irish language as a sign of identity of their country, plus, how important is to continue learning the language. The study proved that regarding this aspect, children are very aware of that, for the recurrent answer given when responding the question ‘What does motivate you when learning Irish?’ was that they conceive the Irish as a secret code, a unique language only spoken in their country.

The other aspect mentioned in the Strategy is that the Government will provide schools and teachers whatever is needed for this plan to success. However, that was a question asked to the teachers in the interview, and the answer was that, being already in the middle of these 20-Years, they had not received any further help nor any resources to develop the Government’s intentions.

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9 The Government has three main goals by applying the strategy. The first one is to extend the Irish language to more people, and thus, to increase the number of Irish speakers in the non-Gaeltacht areas. The second goal is to foster a positive attitude amongst the learners of the Irish language, the third goal is to introduce Irish not only as a compulsory subject, but also a language of instruction. In the interview, a question related to this aspect: Whether the teachers used Irish for teaching other curricular subjects- Responses showed that the teachers indicated that they tended to use Irish to give direction or to comment throughout the day rather than as the language of instruction. This last goal also intends to expand the use of the language in non-school premises (Department of CHG 2015, 11). The intention is not to forget about Irish when going home after school. For this reason, the Strategy is also addressed to the families, for they play an important role in the development of language learning (Slatinská and Pecníková 2017, 323).

2.3. Primary School Curriculum (5

^th

and 6

^th

)

Irish education is divided in primary school and secondary school. The first stage of school compromises eight years. The first two, Junior and Senior Infants, are the equivalents to educació infantil in Spain. The other six go from 1^st class to 6^th class. The secondary school covers six years. In the 3^thyear, students have to take the Junior Certificate exam. It is a state exam and they are tested on all the eleven subjects they do at school. The 4^th year is transition year, and is not compulsory. It gives the students the opportunity to experience different subjects and, some schools might offer work experience. The two following years, 5^th and 6^th, are in the Leaving Certificate cycle, which involves all the subjects that are going to be present in the Leaving Certificate exam. This state exam is the equivalence to the PAU (Proves d’Accés a la Universitat).

Moving now to the curriculum, it has to be mentioned that the curriculum has gone through a huge changes in the conception of how a language has to be taught and learnt.

Students’ capabilities of learning a language have been assessed according to their skills in the areas of speaking, listening, reading and writing, these four skills were the basis of learning, teaching and acquiring language and made up the areas of the curriculum.

Nevertheless, in Ireland the curriculum has changed and encourages the students to achieve a broader knowledge, by dividing the areas into strands. These strands outline the importance of acquiring language both spoken and written. This new approach has four

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10 different strands: the first one is receives the name of receptiveness to the language.

According to the English Curriculum for 5^th and 6^th class (Curriculum Online n.d., 47), in this strand the main goal is for the children to develop both oral and reading skills, regarding writing, the aim is to foster the students’ desire to write. The following one is on competence and confidence. Regarding the oral skill the intention is that the pupils develop their confidence and competence in the use of oral language, this also applies to the skill of writing, therefore, they will acquire independence. In the area of reading, the intention is that the children develop a willingness to read. Developing cognitive abilities through language is the third strand that has been introduced. If the one above mentioned was about developing the competence and confidence, this is about developing the cognitive abilities in, for instance, the oral language. For the writing competence, in this strand the aim is that the children while writing shall ‘clarify their thought’ (Curriculum Online n.d., 47). Meanwhile, regarding the reading area, the objective is a continuation of what has been introduced in the strand before, the reading for pleasure, although in this area, developing the students’ ability to be able to think and at the same time is added.

Finally, the last strand covers the emotional and imaginative development through language. Thus, the oral and writing skills would be based on developing these parts of the language. The reading part is going to promote the students’ response to the text so they would be able to develop further thinking (Curriculum Online n.d., 47).

As it has been mentioned before, the Irish education is focused on the aural language as the basis of it. The argument given is that transmitting the information by means of orality, the other skills would eventually be acquired and mastered. The key point is the alternative that is being promoted: to maximize as possible the use of the oral language in the classes in order to decrease the amount of written exercises given. One of the ideas that comes out is that the teachers should try to impulse the use of oral communication as

‘a basis for writing’ (Curriculum Online n.d., 13). In the interview, the teachers responded that regarding the Irish lessons, the classes were mostly aural as the spelling of the Irish language is very hard. However, every week, the students are tested on ten to twenty Irish words in isolation. On Monday, they are given the list of words and they have to practise them during the week, and then, on Friday spelling tests are held.

On the other hand, the English lessons are now changing, as a lot of effort is put on the aural way of teaching. For example, when writing essays, all the previous work is done orally. In the same way, the Irish spelling tests are held on Fridays, with English is the

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11 same. In 5^thclass, the pupils are given words that may be unknown for them, therefore, they are learning new words every week. Whereas in 6^thclass, the words might not be always in isolation, as they can be given phrases or sentences.

Although, using the CLIL method in the Irish primary schools has proved to be very effective (Slatinská and Pecníková 2017, 324), it could not be said that the Timoleague NS follow the CLIL method. Nevertheless, it is harder to apply as it implies a high level of competence in Irish from the teachers and it might not be the case. However, in the school, the students are in contact with the language during the whole day. In their article, Slatinská and Pecníková, enumerate three ways of introducing CLIL in schools. The approach that they first introduced would be the one followed be the Timoleague NS, which is ‘using CLIL informally, either in their language class or by teaching content from other subjects areas through Irish from time to time’ (Slatinská and Pecníková 2017, 324). The other two ways would be based on increasing the usage of the Irish language, until the point of having one half of the subjects in Irish while the other half in English.

3. The Concepts of Motivation and Attitude 3.1 Motivation

In 2009, Dörnyei published an article in which he enumerated the stages that the literature about the motivation in the second language learning has gone through during the last four decades. The first period (1959-1990) received the name of the ‘psychological period’ thank to the work done by Robert Gardner (a social psychologist) in Canada.

Some concepts were discovered in this stage that nowadays are key for the study of motivation in second language learning. Gardner made a division between integrative and instrumental motivation. The former is related with the learner’s intention of becoming part of the L2 community, and the latter referring to the profits that one can obtain from learning that language. The second phase (1990s) that the study of motivation went through was the ‘cognitive-situated’ period, which is characterized by cognitive theories also coming from Canada. During this phase, there was a change in the conception of the two terms coined out by Gardner in the period before. Integrative and instrumental motivation now were called intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, two concepts that are going

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12 to be explained further in this paper. The last decades of research have been based on the introduction of new theories and approaches, and they have focused on the ‘relationship between motivation and identity’ (Dörnyei 2009, 16-17).

In his article ‘Motivation in second language learning` (2014), Dörnyei presents three fundamental motivational principles in order to help teachers to foster motivation when learning the L2. The first principle explains new ways of motivating the children instead of punishing them or offering rewards. For instance, some of the answers provided by the students in the questionnaires show that they feel more comfortable when doing essay competitions because they are being assessed, and, at the same time, they are not as much under pressure as if they were in an exam. Therefore, as a motivational strategy for the children it is very effective.

The next principle is based on keeping on maintaining that motivation. Moreover, according to the strategy that the teachers from the Timoleague NS explained in the interview, the students’ motivation is maintained thanks to the different activities carried out in the classroom: essays competitions, acting out, or the ‘Tea Conversation Day’. This last activity is done in 6^th class. Once per month, in 6^th class, they have this `Tea Conversation Day’. This exercise is carried out during the Irish class and it may last more than one hour. The students change the position of desks and, in groups of four or five, they sit in a circle, as if it was a café’s table. The point is that every conversation the kids have must be in Irish. Thus, the students feel that somehow, they can use the language they are learning not only for school contexts.

In order to understand better the term motivation, it is important to bear in mind the term passion. As Oroujlou and Vahedi stated in 2011, passion ‘relates to a person’s intrinsic goals and desires’, more and more, those learners who succeed in L2 acquisition, are those who ‘know their preferences, their strengths and weaknesses, and effectively utilize strengths and compensate for their weaknesses’ (Oroujlou and Vahedi 2011, 995). For this reason, teachers should find ways to potentiate their passions in order to impulse their motivation.

According to the authors, integrative motivation is defined as the eagerness shown by the learner when it comes to the second language’s community. It is a learner that wants to be part of the L2 society (Oroujlou and Vahedi 2011, 996). In contrast, instrumental motivation, is the one that, from a more practical point of view, moves the student to

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13 study just because of the utilities it will provide: getting a job, entering college, in the case of the Irish, to pass the Cert Exams, or to be able to work for public entities (Oroujlou and Vahedi 2011, 996).

Another theory on L2 learning motivation is Dörnyei’s. He proposes three levels of L2 learning motivation: language level, learner level, and learning situation level. The first one is related to aspects such as the culture of the language community or the potential this second language would provide the student. The learner level is mostly based on the pupil’s motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic). The last level, the learning situation level, is the most complex. It is made up by the extrinsic motives that concern areas related to the curriculum or the teaching approaches, areas that deal with teacher-related motives (e.g., to please him or her), or finally, areas that cover the specific objectives of the classroom (Dörnyei 1994, 280-81).

Another idea given by Dörnyei (1994) is promoting the contact with the L2 culture;

however, in this aspect, the children have some advantage as the culture of the language they are currently learning is their own culture. What is important for them to learn and to be aware of is that the language they are studying is a minority language only spoken in their country, and by using it, they are preserving it.

Among the propositions Dörnyei (1994) enumerates, another one would be encouraging the students to set goals that can be reachable for them. For that, he provides an example of learning a certain amount of words per week, fact that does not differ from what the Timoleague NS does, plus, the difficulty of the words is increasing as the school year is passing. Therefore, at the beginning of the year most of the students would not have thought that they were able to spell a whole phrase in Irish, but eventually, by the end of the year, they see themselves capable of that (Dörnyei 1994, 281).

In 2018, Döryei presents his idea of the L2 motivational self-system. This system is made up by three constructs: ‘the ideal L2 self, the ought-to L2 self, and the L2 learning experience’ (Döryei 2018, 3). The first item, as the name itself announces, is the idea that oneself has in the future as a speaker of that specific language, the expectations that everybody has when learning a new language. If when reached to a certain point (for example, the end of the school year), the student does not see as much improvement as expected, then, it may motivate him or her in order to put more effort on that for the following year. The ‘ought-to L2 self’ involves the capacities one should have to acquire

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14 a second language. Those would be the student’s background, culture, or the willingness to learn the language. This second construct is related to the first one as it also involves the expectations that the pupil has about the L2 acquisition. The last component differs from the other two because it is not related to further expectations: it focuses on the present, on the ‘L2 learning experience’, for it is the name given to it. This focus on the present is because it refers to what actually can help the student to be motivated to learn:

the ‘learning environment’ (Dörnyei 2018, 3). The teacher, the curriculum, the friends, or the family as well, would be factors in this learning environment.

All in all, it is arguable that in order for a student to be motivated, lots of factors exist. It is important to take into account what can motivate a whole class, but it is even more important to know how to foster each individual’s motivation, for if a child is not eager to learn, this lack of interest might affect his or her future, and maybe the class and the whole learning process would be affected.

3.2 Attitude

In 2008, Ó Riagain, Williams, and Vila i Moreno published the work Young People and Minority Languages: Language use outside the classroom. This work is a research based on the conception that young people have towards minority languages. The study focuses on the Irish language (in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland), Welsh, and, in Spain, the Catalan and Basque languages. All of them are languages that, despite of being co-official in the country, still struggling to find their place in them.

After doing research on the Irish community, the authors found out that Irish is not a language widely spoken among young people neither is it used in non-school contexts (Ó Riagain et al. 2008, 2). Although being obvious, it is important to mention that those who have more facilities to speak Irish are those who in their social networks have the Irish language present. This is mostly seen in the Gaeltacht areas, whereas, in other areas where Irish is only spoken in schools, such as Timoleague, it is hard to come across a conversation in Irish at the shop or in the playground. The key factor for the Irish language to be widely spoken is the intervention of both parents and teachers, although, more attention should be paid on behalf of the families. The children are already practising Irish at school, so if when they go home, they do not say a word in Irish, then all the work done in class is wasted. In order to foster the use of Irish outside schools, one option would be

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15 to have homework where Irish was present. The more prevalent the Irish in the children’s everyday life would be, the more positive their attitude towards the language would be.

This is related to the fact that attitude is ‘affected by a number of cultural characteristics’

(Gardner 1985, 44). The moment the children feel that the language they are learning is not imposed, their conception towards the language itself is going to improve.

Gardner (1985) mentions a study carried out by Jones in 1950 comparing attitudes of three groups of students in Wales. The students having Welsh-speaking parents, the second with those whose parents spoke some Welsh, and finally, the students whose parents did not know any Welsh. After the study was finished, Jones found out that the attitude shown by the children of non-speaking Welsh parents towards the learning of that language was not as positive as the one the other two groups showed. Therefore, Gardner concludes that the fact of having ‘a linguistic background’ (Gardner 1985, 44) in Welsh was an important factor for the students towards a L2 learning.

The author of the study mentioned above, Jones (1950), agreed that a correlation existed between ‘attitudes and indices of achievement’ and this correlation ‘tended to increase as students grew older’, and, furthermore, the students’ attitude became less positive (Gardner 1985, 44). This last statement is evidenced in the results of the study, for the 6^th class students’ attitude was not as positive as the 5^th class one.

As Gardner (1985) states, it could be said that proficiency in the L2 is closely related to the ‘attitude toward learning the second language and attitudes toward the second language community’ (Gardner 1985, 60). More and more, as the results of the study will show, the majority of the students feel that the fact of learning Irish is positive towards the Irish community as they have in mind that by learning it and speaking it, the language would not die out (Gardner 1985, 60).

Another point of view given to the term is that it has to be understood as a concept to comprehend human behaviour and it is defined as a ‘mental state that includes beliefs and feelings’ (Oroujlou and Vahedi 2011, 994). The beliefs that one has about language learning are totally related to the success in the learning of the language. Nevertheless, negative attitudes and lack of motivation cannot be forgotten, and teachers have to work hard in order to turn them into positive ones. It is important to take into account the statement announcing that ‘attitude is a set of beliefs and motivation is a reason for doing something’ (Oroujlou and Vahedi 2011, 997).

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16 Lasagabaster (2005), reviews an interesting aspect about attitudes, for he explains that attitudes towards language learning can be ‘dynamic or static’ as there are factors that can cause them vary. In the answers given by the students, it is clearly seen how, depending on, for example, the kind of activities they do in class, their attitudes may be more positive or not. Although it has to be said that the teachers put lot of efforts on making the classes and the learning process as entertaining as possible (Lasagabaster 2005, 22).

All in all, a positive attitude and motivation will eventually result in the achievement of the language (Oroujlou and Vahedi 2011, 994).

4. The Study

The study presented in this paper was conducted in the Timoleague National School, situated in the county of Cork, Ireland. In it, 39 students participated, 24 of them were from 6^thclass and the rest (15) were from 5^th class. These two classes were chosen due to the kind of questions that they were asked, some were regarding vocabulary or grammar, and it was taken into account that 2^nd or 3^rd class would not be able to understand 100%

of the questions, and therefore, for the purpose of this study, the answers would have not been that valid.

An interview to both teachers was carried out in order to get to know better the methodologies used in class, and the understanding they have of the children’s learning process.

4.1. The Instrument

For the purpose of the study, the kids completed a questionnaire containing questions related to attitude and motivation. Each question had to be answered following a 5-point Likert-scale (number one stood for ‘strongly agree’, and number five for ‘strongly disagree’).

The questionnaire contained two parts. In the first, a set of questions related to the Irish subject, and questions related to the English. Regarding both languages, the questions

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17 were almost the same; however, in the English section, questions that are more specific were added. The second part focused on questions in which the students had to develop their answers: ‘what is your favourite part of learning English/Irish?’ and ‘what does motivate you when learning English/Irish? With these two questions, the intention was to gain useful information to better understand the results of the study.

4.2. The Results

Once the questionnaires were collected, apart from being divided by classes, another division was made: boys’ and girls’ results were examined separately.

The first questionnaire analysed here is the Irish. In 5^th class, both girls and boys gave similar answers. As it has been mentioned in this paper before, girls normally show more positive feedback, and we can see in the results how for both 5^th and 6^th class, their responses are more positive. It can be seen in Figure 1 and 2 that between the answers provided by girls and boys, the average is slightly the same.

Figure 1.

3 2 2 2 4 4 2 2 3 2

3 4 3 4 2 3 4 2 2 1

2 3 2 3 2 4 4 2 2 33 2 3 2 4 4 3 3 3 2

3 1 4 1 5 5 2 4 2 2

4 2 4 2 4 3 4 2 5 4

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0

5TH CLASS BOYS IRISH

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18 Figure 2.

The students were asked ten questions regarding their feelings about the subject; these ten questions are the ones standing in the X axis. Then, for each question we find as many columns as students answering the questions, and at the top, the answer: from 1 to 5 on the Likert-scale.

Regarding the results obtained in 5^th class, we can observe that, in general, students have the same opinion about some aspects. However, in questions such as number 2: ‘Irish does not benefit me’, the average answer for boys was 2.3, whereas, the answer provided by the girls resulted in 3,5, it means that in general, the boys consider learning Irish not beneficial to them. Another question in which the difference between boys and girls was noticeable was the third: ‘I would like to speak and write Irish perfectly’. The feedback received from this one is interesting because the girls were the ones that showed more negativity (2) and, on the contrary, the boys were more receptive to be able to speak and write Irish perfectly. Another point that is worth mentioning are the answers given in question number 5: ‘I enjoy my Irish lessons at school’. From the male perspective, the Irish lessons are not enjoyable (3.5), but on the other hand, the girls do enjoy them, as the average result for this answer was 2.7.

Nonetheless, some of the answers provided are understood better when we compare them with the answers obtained from the two questions placed at the end of the questionnaire.

For instance, in question number 4 (‘Learning Irish is boring’), the results received from the boys were quite negative (2,3); although, when responding the question ‘what does motivate you when learning Irish?’, their feedback resulted to be contradictory. All the

0 5 1 2 2 4 5 1 3 5

0 2 4 1 4 3 4 5 2 2

0 2 3 1 3 3 4 4 2 2

0 2 4 1 3 2 4 4 2 3

0 2 4 3 3 4 4 5 3 4

0 2 5 3 3 3 2 5 2 4

0 1 4 2 4 2 3 5 1 3

0 1 3 2 4 1 2 1 2 3

2,111111111 3,555555556 2 3,222222222 2,777777778 3,333333333 3,777777778 2,222222222 3,333333333

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0

5TH CLASS GIRLS IRISH

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19 boys gave different motives to learn Irish, and surprisingly, only two gave the answer ‘to get the questions right’. Among the information gathered from the masculine part, the motivation to learn Irish could come from reading, also because it is the national language, or from the different types of traditional Irish music. On the other hand, the girls gave another kind of feedback. The fact that they conceive the language as a secret code motivates the majority of them, as it was the most repeated answer.

The other concept the students were asked about was ‘what is your favourite part of learning Irish?’. In this case, the boys’ responses demonstrated better attitude. Being as unique as it is, the Irish language is in good consideration from behalf of the children, although the Irish subject, the fact of having to study it for school is not in such good consideration. The point is that, again, conceiving the language as a secret code is one of the favourite parts of it. For most of the girls, reading stories, together with playing games would be the preferred parts of the subject.

To sum up, although in the questionnaire the answers given did not show positive attitude towards the Irish as a subject, it is true that the students from 5^thclass are aware of the importance of learning Irish and its continuity.

Moving on to the results obtained from 6^th class, we can expect, as it has been previously said, that as the students are a year older, their attitude might be more negative towards learning a second language.

In comparison to the 5^th class, the results showed bigger differences between boys and girls. Three out of the ten questions proved that huge difference in the spectrum between girls and boys.

Those mentioned differences would be illustrated in figures number 3 and 4. For example, in question number 1, ‘learning Irish is important’, the boys gave negative answers, whereas the girls strongly agreed that the learning of this subject is important.

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20 Figure 3.

Figure 4.

The differences are apparent for questions number 2, number 4 and 7. Question number 2 stands for: ‘learning Irish does not benefit me’. The females did not agree at all with that statement, as the average was 3.9; on the contrary, the males agreed that learning Irish was not beneficial for them. Another statement in which the boys provided negative feedback (1.75) was in number 4: ‘learning Irish is boring’. Not surprisingly, the girls’

feedback was completely the opposite. The last question where the differences were remarkable focused on the usefulness of learning Irish. Following the same path as in the above mentioned, the boys’ response was negative, and the girls’ positive.

The questions asked at the very end of the questionnaire showed that some of the responses given mostly by the boys were contradictory. When answering to explain their favourite part of learning Irish, most of them mentioned the games they play in class, and

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6TH CLASS BOYS IRISH

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6TH CLASS GIRLS IRISH

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21 at the same time, they had just said that learning Irish was boring. In this case, there is not much of a difference between boys and girls; because the latter also stated that playing games or doing drama were their favourite parts. Other opinions the boys gave were related to affairs that are more practical for them: to pass the Leaving Certificate or to pass the weekly spelling tests. On the other hand, the other answers given by the girls were focused on the language itself: the fact of learning new words, of learning traditions, or the fact that Irish is their native language, are some of the factors that favour the girls’

attitude towards the language.

Regarding the second question, on the motivation to study Irish, the most common answer between both groups was the fact that the Irish is the native language of the country. The second most common was the belief that the students have of the language as a secret code. Again, as seen in 5^th class, we can appreciate that the children are aware of the situation of the language, and curiously, one girl responded that her motivation was to help with the revitalization of the language.

Thanks to the good work done by the teachers of transmitting the importance of maintaining the language, the children, although not willing to learn it in the schools, have in mind that they are the ones in charge of not letting the language die out.

After analysing the Irish part of the questionnaire, we are going to examine now the English answers. In this part of the exercise, the results obtained do not differ as much between boys and girls. Overall, the feedback received was quite favourable toward the learning of English. However, as it has been seen in the above analysed, the results from 6^th class boys will show that their attitude continues being negative.

Starting with 5^th class, among the eight questions that were asked, half of them showed to have more or less the same total average between boys and girls. Nevertheless, in the first statement, ‘I already know English, so I don’t need to keep on learning it’, the boys’

average answer was 2.9 (closer to ‘I agree’), and whereas the girls’ demonstrated not to agree at all because their average answer was 3.7. Another point in where we can appreciate some differences was the second one: ‘my English lessons are boring’. In this case, the same happened when the students answered this question regarding the Irish lessons. In the questionnaire, the majority of them provided negative answers, but then, in the questions asked at the end, which are going to be analysed later, the pupils gave contradictory answers. One of the questions asked whether the students find interesting

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22 what they learn in class. It is worth mentioning that in this case, boys responded that they are interested in what they learn, even though, they had just agreed in that their lessons were boring. When asked in question number 5 if they would like to learn more in their English lessons, the female students agreed in their willingness to expand they knowledge in English. On the other hand, the boys’ answer was not as positive as the girls’ was. In figures number 5 and 6, the results are more clearly seen.

Figure 5.

Figure 6.

Curiously, the opinions received from the 5^th class children when asked about their favourite part of learning English were mostly based on the use of English, reading and writing. One student in particular gave an example of reading poetry as her favourite area of the subject, whilst for the majority of students did not give specific examples of what they like to read.

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5TH CLASS BOYS ENGLISH

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5TH CLASS GIRLS ENGLISH

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23 Talking about what does motivate them when learning English, again, language related answers were their motives to keep on learning the language. Among the girls, the most repeated item was reading. ‘Getting it right’ is also a matter that motivates both boys and girls, although not as much as with the Irish.

Regarding the results obtained in 6^th class, we find similarities with the 5^th in the sense that between girls and boys there are no huge differences in the answers. The remarkable responses to point out are the ones given to the questions on whether they find it easy to learn grammar, vocabulary or spellings. The boys, with an average answer of 2.3 in grammar, and 2.1 for vocabulary and spellings, showed that they consider learning those skills quite easy, and on the other hand, the girls’ averages for these questions proved that for them, learning grammar (1.5) and vocabulary and spellings (1.8) is even easier. All in all, only those two aspects were the most noticeable, as shown in figure 7 and 8.

Figure 7.

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6TH CLASS BOYS ENGLISH

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24 Figure 8.

It is true that those results obtained from 6^th class in the first part of the questionnaire on English do not offer much to comment on, yet when the students were asked about their favourite part of the subject, it is worth mentioning that the vast majority announced that it was writing together with reading. Not only is the learning of these two skills their favourite part, but it is what truly motivates them as well. Nevertheless, the boys provided another type of answer that could be expected just by analysing the answers given in the other part of the questionnaire: what motivates them to learn English is ‘getting it right’.

5. Conclusions

Having analysed the results provided by the students, we can draw some conclusions regarding the ideas they have when learning both languages, Irish and English.

Regarding motivation, Zóltan Dörnyei (1994) quotes Gardner and his theory that motivation is based on two components: integrative and instrumental motivation. The first refers to a ‘positive disposition towards the L2’ (Dörnyei 1994, 274), that is, to be willing to be alike the speakers of the L2 community. The latter, instrumental motivation, is the one given by the ‘pragmatic gains of the L2’ (Dörnyei 1994, 274). In this case, motivation comes from what the students can do with that acquired new language: for instance easiness to get a job or to pass exams. In the questionnaire, there is a relevant

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6TH CLASS GIRLS ENGLISH

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25 difference between the answers given by boys and girls regarding the question of what motivated them when studying both Irish and English. Most of the girls answered that their motivation was the fact Irish was a unique language and when answering about English, reading was what motivated them the most. On the other hand, the boys’

motivation was to pass their spelling tests or to ‘get it right’.

Extrinsic goals such as tests and exams should be avoided as much as possible since they are detrimental to intrinsic motivation (Dörnyei 1994). Moreover, the questionnaire shows that, for the students involved, the favourite parts of learning a language are playing games, writing, and reading. What is more, in the previous sentence has been already mentioned the answer to foster motivation when learning the language would be evaluating the children when doing such activities, as they would feel more comfortable.

(Dörnyei 1994, 276)

In the interview the teachers mentioned that the assessment of children’s progress is not done anymore through exams, apart from the weekly tests: it is carried out through reading and writing activities or playing games. Therefore, for the children it is a good way as they answered that those are their favourite parts when learning the language.

In relation to the Irish language, we have seen that most of the children are not eager to learn it at school, but at the same time, they are very aware of the importance of learning it. Oroujlo and Vahedi (2011) explain that learners can have different motives to learn a language, and as it has been seen in the questionnaire, most of the answers given by the students when asked about what motivated them to study a language was ‘to get the answers right’. Therefore, from the point of view of these authors, teachers have the power to change this conception by, for example, showing the students the reason why they should make an effort to learn a minority language such language as Irish (Oroujlo and Vahedi 2011, 995). However, it is true that regarding the Irish language, conceiving it as a secret code or language, was one of the most repeated answers they gave regarding the motives of learning it, largely thanks to the teachers that transmit that importance.

We have seen that the understanding girls and boys have regarding both languages is slightly different. On the one hand, boys in general, focus more on the benefits they would obtain from each language, but in particular, they enjoy the common aspects of the lessons as reading or writing. Moreover, the older the children get, the less positive their attitudes are towards language learning; therefore, it is noticeable that 5^th class boys’ answers

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26 compared to those of 6^thshow more positives attitudes, although that is not the case with the girls.

On the other hand, girls have proved to be more positive and willing to learn both languages. When answering about their favourite parts and motives, the majority of their answers had been language-related concerning writing and reading. We can argue that, although they know the practical benefits of learning each language, girls are more interested in expanding their knowledge of the language. Related to this fact, Lasagabaster (2005) in his study on motivation towards learning Basque, proved that the female participants’ attitudes were more favourable towards the minority language and actually, it does not happen only with the Basque language (Lasagabaster 2005, 14), it also happens with the Irish language as seen above.

After the research completed on this topic and the analysis of the study, factors such as motivation and attitude influence the process of learning a language. Those involved (students, teachers, and families) in that process have to ensure that in order to acquire both languages these mentioned factors are taken into consideration. In conclusion, from this research it is evident that positive attitude and motivation cannot be taken for guaranteed.

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6. Bibliography

Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. (2015). “20-Year Strategy for the

Irish Language”. Accessed April 5, 2019.

https://www.chg.gov.ie/app/uploads/2015/07/20-Year-Strategy-English-version.pdf Dörnyei, Zoltán. "Motivation and Motivating in the Foreign Language Classroom." The Modern Language Journal 78, no. 3 (1994): 273-84. doi:10.2307/330107.

Dörnyei, Z. (2018). Motivating students and teachers. In Liontas, J. I. (Ed.), The TESOL encyclopedia of English language teaching (Vol. 7; pp. 4293-4299) . Alexandria, VA:

TESOL.

Dörnyei, Z. (2014). Motivation in second language learning. In M. Celce-Murcia, D. M.

Brinton & M. A. Snow (Eds.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (4th ed., pp. 518-531). Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning.

Dörnyei, Z. (2009). Motivation and the vision of knowing a second language. In B.

Beaven (Ed.), IATEFL 2008: Exeter conference selections (pp. 16-22). Canterbury:

IATEFL.

Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: The Role of Attitudes and Motivation. London, GB: Edward Arnold.

Lasagabaster, D. (2005) Attitudes towards Basque, Spanish and English: An analysis of the most influential variables. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 26:296-316.

O’Byrne, Anne. “Learning a Strange Native Language.” Social Identities 13, no. 3 (May 2007): 307–23. doi:10.1080/13504630701363952.

Ó Riagain, Pádraig, Glyn Williams, F. Xavier Vila i Moreno. 2008. “Young People and Minority Languages: Language use outside the classroom”.

http://www.gaelscoileanna.ie/files/Young-People-and-Minority-Languages.pdf

Oroujlou, N., & Vahedi, M. (2011). Motivation, attitude and language learning. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 29, 994-1000

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28 Primary School Curriculum. n.d. Accessed April 5, 2019.

https://www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/5b514700-e65c-46a7-a7d0- c8e05e115bf9/PSEC01a_English_Curriculum.pdf

Slatinská, Anna, and Jana Pecníková. “The Role of Irish Language Teaching: Cultural Identity Formation or Language Revitalization?” European Journal of Contemporary Education 6, no. 2 (April 2017): 317–27. doi:10.13187/ejced.2017.2.317.

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Annex 1: The Questionnaire

IRISH

 Learning Irish is important

1. Strongly agree 2. Agree 3. Neither agree nor disagree

4. Disagree 5. Strongly disagree

 Learning Irish does not benefit me.

 I would like to speak and write Irish perfectly.

 Learning Irish is boring.

 I enjoy my Irish lessons at school.

 I would read a book, listen to music or watch TV in Irish.

 Learning Irish is useless.

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 Speaking Irish with my family and friends would help my learning.

 I find Irish Grammar easy to learn.

 I find Irish Vocabulary and Spellings easy to learn.

 What is your favourite part of learning Irish?

 What does motivate you when learning Irish?

ENGLISH

 I already know English, so I don’t need to keep on learning it.

 My English lessons are boring.

 Learning English is important.