Effective teaching practice requires that teachers know their students not as 'faceless average learners', but as individuals. The most individual of learner characteristics is personality, and yet language education research has made little progress in understanding the role of personality. As the field of language learning motivation seeks to…

As many students worldwide receive second language (L2) English private tutoring (EPT) that shadows school curricula, examining student perceptions of it is essential to understanding their L2 learning. From the L2 Motivational Self perspective, students' "ideal L2 self," "ought-to L2 self" and "L2 learning…

Demotivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011) and non-participation (Norton, 2001) characterize negative responses to classroom practice of a generally chronic nature. In this article, focus is directed to negativity that emerges within the context of a particular language developing activity, and which can be understood as a situated response to the…

Presents findings relating to a study on pupils' perceptions of the in-school foreign language learning experience. The study is part of a longitudinal study on the motivational perspectives of secondary pupils learning German. (Author/VWL)