Motivation in learning Spanish in Slovenian students of elementary and secondary schools

Zaradi aktualne svetovne globalizacije pridobiva učenje tujih jezikov (TJ) v današnjem času vse večji pomen. Povečano zanimanja za učenje in poučevanje TJ se med drugimi kaže v kurikularnih spremembah šolskega sistema s pomikanjem poučevanja TJ v vedno zgodnejše obdobje in ponudbo širokega izbora jezikov. Eden izmed jezikov, ki je zadnjih dveh desetletjih vedno bolj priljubljen, je zagotovo španščina. V magistrski nalogi bomo skušali odgovoriti na vprašanje, zakaj je španski jezik tako zanimiv za slovensko mlado populacijo. Zaradi omejitve obsega naloge se bomo osredotočili na slovenske osnovnošolce in srednješolce, pri katerih bomo raziskovali naravo začetne in trenutne motivacije za učenje španskega jezika. Teoretični del naloge se začne s splošno predstavitvijo poučevanja in učenja TJ, sledi opis jezikovne politike Evropske unije in nato nekoliko podrobneje, Slovenije. Sledi teoretična obravnava koncepta motivacije za učenje TJ z različnih vidikov tujih in slovenskih raziskovalcev. Poglavje vsebuje predstavitev splošnih definicij in značilnosti učne motivacije, zgodovinski pregled teoretičnih konceptov vse do danes in opredelitev temeljnih vrst motivacije za učenje TJ, ki predstavljajo tudi teoretično osnovo za izvedeno raziskavo, predstavljeno v empiričnemu delu naloge. Empirični del vključuje analizo raziskave, ki se je izvedla med slovenskimi osnovnošolci in srednješolci, ki se kot TJ učijo španščino. S pomočjo anketnega vprašalnika se je ugotavljala začetna in trenutna narava motivacije za učenje španščine. Analiza temelji na teoretskih osnovah dveh tipov motivacije za učenje TJ: notranje (integralne) motivacije in zunanje (instrumentalne) motivacije. Nato se je s pomočjo statistične obdelave ugotavljalo, ali obstajajo statistično pomembne razlike v tipu motivacije glede na spol in šolo, ki jo obiskujejo anketiranci (osnovna in srednja šola). Za pridobitev širšega vpogleda na obravnavano problematiko, se magistrska naloga zaključi s primerjavo pridobljenih rezultatov z rezultati dveh sorodnih poljskih raziskav, ki sta ugotavljali motivacijo za učenje španščine in nemščine med poljskimi učenci in dijaki.Due to world globalization, the concept of learning foreign languages (in advance FL) is acquiring an always more important role. The increase of the interest of learning FL is apparent in the curricular modifications of the school systems which is moving the teaching of FL to earlier ages and offering an always wider range of possible FL. Spanish is one of the languages, which has shown an increase in popularity among Slovenian students in the last two decades. Why Spanish has become so interesting for Slovenian students of primary and secondary schools represents the central question of the present master\u27s work. The beginning of the theoretical part begins with the presentation of the role of FL in general, continues with the demonstration of the language situation within the European Union and ends with a detailed presentation of the FL teaching in Slovenia. The next chapter includes the elaboration of the concept of motivation for learning FL, according to different Slovenian and foreign researchers. This part begins with the presentation of the definitions and typical characteristics of motivation, continues with a summary of the theoretical evolution up to the present time and ends with the presentation of the fundamental types of motivation for learning FL, that also forms the theoretical basis for the analysis of the survey presented in the last part. The empirical part includes an analysis of survey carried out among Slovenian primary and secondary school students, with the objective of determining the type of the initial and current motivation for learning Spanish as a FL. The analysis is based on two types of motivation: intrinsic motivation (integral) and extrinsic motivation (instrumental). This analysis is followed by the investigation about the existence of statistically significant differences in the type of motivation for Spanish language according to gender and the school attended by respondents. To obtain a wider perspective of the presented concept, the master\u27s thesis concludes with a comparison of our results with the results of two related Polish researches which also investigate the type of motivation for learning Spanish and German language