French- English- and Plurilingual Selves of multiple language learners in Switzerland

Abstract

Since the implementation of the Council of Europe's language policy (2001) to promote multi- and plurilingualism in schools (Beacco et al. 2016), language learning motivation research has increasingly developed a multilingual perspective investigating motivational interactions between different languages in multiple foreign language learning, especially studies based on Dörnyei's (2009) "L2 Motivational Self System". The focus of these studies has mostly been on the influence of learning English on the motivation to learn other foreign languages. Some studies found no motivational interactions between languages (Heinzmann 2010; Brühwiler et al. 2017), others found negative (Henry 2010, 2011) or positive (Stöckli 2004) interactions. Recently, there have been efforts to conceptualize the motivational systems of each target language not as separate entities, but as an overarching multilingual motivational self-system comprising multilingual self-guides, one of them being an ideal multilingual self (Henry 2017, Henry & Thorsen 2017; Busse 2015; 2017, Lasagabaster 2017).

The present contribution situates itself within this still young research tradition on multiple language learners’ multilingual self and its interaction with L2 and L3 selves. It reports preliminary findings of a large-scale experimental intervention study with a pre-, post- and delayed posttest design in the Swiss-German context examining the effectiveness of an integrated language learning and teaching approach (see Manno et al. 2020) in French L3 classes on 10th graders’ French competencies, ideal language selves and language learning awareness. In the first part of our contribution, we will present the intervention and our conceptualization of a plurilingual self which is firmly rooted in an integrated view of plurilingualism. Based on data from the pretest (prior to the intervention) in 36 classes, we will then outline how well-developed these students’ English (L2), French (L3) and plurilingual ideal selves are, whether this is related to students’ language background and how these motivational selves interact.