ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATIONS TOWARDS FRENCH, ENGLISH AND SPANISH IN BILINGUALS AND IN TRILINGUALS
S. El Euch
Univetsité du Québec à Trois-Rivières (CANADA)
The presence of at least three languages in the curriculum is an expanding phenomenon in several countries. However, very few studies analysed attitudes and motivation towards three languages that are in contact in an academic context. By examining the attitudes and motivation of Quebec university students towards French, English and Spanish, this study strives to help correct this deficiency. This paper reports results of a pilot study in which we examined 30 undergraduates’ attitudes and motivation towards French, English and Spanish. The objective is to compare bilinguals’ and trilinguals’ attitudes and motivations towards each of the three languages in order to find out if the more languages one knows, the better his attitudes and motivations towards language learning are. Participants completed a questionnaire based on an adaptation of Gardner and Lambert’s (1972). Results showed that bilinguals and trilinguals generally have the same attitudinal and motivational profile in relation to French and English. Differences between the two groups lie in their attitudes and motivation related to Spanish.