L2 motivation of Greek young learners and adolescents

Research into learners’ development of motivation has been a challenging endeavour. The present study[1]explores EFL learners’ course of motivation and motivational orientations as their age advances from primary to secondary education and seeks possible relations between those learners’ motivation, gender, and their self-perceived language proficiency. The participants were 3,356 elementary (10-12 years of age) and lower secondary school (13-15 years of age) learners from all over Greece. The results portray the dynamics of motivation over time and the transition of interest in preferred reasons for learning English. They also confirm previous studies with regard to differences in education level, gender, and self-perceived proficiency level.[1] This study is part of the THALES project MIS 379335. It was held in the frame of the National Strategic Reference Frame (Ε.Σ.Π.Α.) and was co-funded by resources of the European Union (European Social Fund) and national resources