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Article published In:
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 37:2 (2014) ► pp.145–160

Personal growth as a strong element in the motivation of Australian university students to learn German

| Australian National University

For the last ten years, language learning motivation research has focussed on how learners see knowledge of a language as part of their identity. This article presents the findings of a qualitative interview study that investigated whether personal growth is also a strong element in the motivation of Australian university students to learn German. After first outlining the theoretical framework in which the study is situated and describing the research design and method, the article will present the main findings and argue that personal growth as well as a desire to broaden one’s horizons are strong motives for Australian students of German. The article concludes by discussing the findings and their implications.

Keywords: language learning motivation, qualitative research, German, university students, Ideal L2 Self
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 1 January 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.37.2.04sch
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