Lernen Erwachsene Fremdsprachen anders? Motivation, Einstellungen, Angst als affektive Variablen im Zweitspracherwerb bei Erwachsenen und Kindern

Abstract

Are there differences between child and adult foreign languagelearning? – Motivation, attitudes and anxiety as affective variables in foreign language learning in adults and children

The objective of this paper is to answer the following question: To what extent may age have an effect on learners’ motivation, attitudes and anxiety? This paper demonstrates that – with respect to all three variables – the learning environment is crucial for language acquisition: in an informal learning context children are usually more highly motivated to acquire the language than adults. In both formal and informal learning contexts adults have generally higher anxiety levels than children; this tendency may be connected with the desire to maintain a particular linguistic and cultural identity.