Perceptions of Gender Differences in High School Students' Motivation to Learn Spanish

Abstract: Little research has been conducted in the United States to explore male motivation to learn Spanish. In response, we conducted a study to investigate gender differences in motivation to learn Spanish among students in a southeastern United States high school. Building upon Gardner's (1985) influential model of second language (L2) motivation, we employed a mixed methodology to investigate gender differences in motivational factors. Sixty students studying Level 1 Spanish completed a questionnaire. We further explored the findings of the questionnaires in interviews. Although the results indicated that the boys perceived themselves to be less motivated than their female peers, gender differences were less dramatic than in previous studies. The study's results also suggest that males and females have opposing preferences with respect to L2 classroom management. Key words: Spanish, classroom management, gender differences, mixed methodology, motivation Since publication of The Tongue-Tied American: Confronting the Foreign Language Crisis (Simon, 1980) there has been growing interest in second language (L2) education in the United States. In today's era of globalization and multiculturalism, the need to speak more than one language has become even more evident. In addition to the cognitive benefits of L2 instruction (Foster & Reeves, 1989), there are clear employment- and cultural-related reasons to develop proficiency in another language (Graddol, 2004). The events of September 11 and the subsequent launching of the federal government's $114 million National Security Language Initiative in 2006 (Graham, 2006) have also brought attention to reasons related to national security for learning additional languages in the United States. While there is a growing interest in instruction in numerous second languages across the country (Draper & Hicks, 2000), the rapidly changing demographics of the U.S. population draw specific attention to the need to learn Spanish. The Spanishspeaking population in the United States is more than 35 million, making it the third largest Spanish-speaking country in the world (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000, p. 1). To better prepare American youth to compete and thrive in such a diverse and international forum, greater emphasis and importance must be placed on L2 education. Data from the past 10 years indicate that American schools are beginning to respond to the call for greater L2 education. For example, a survey conducted in 2000 by the ACTFL revealed that from 1994 to 2000, the number of students enrolled in an L2 program in public secondary schools in the United States increased by almost 1 million (Draper & Hicks, 2000, p. 1). Further indicative of growing interest in L2 education, the Center for Applied Linguistics recently reported that 8% of elementary schools and 17% of secondary schools not offering L2 instruction in 2008 hope to do so in the near future (Rhodes & Pufahl, 2009, p. 1). It appears that American schools are also responding to the growth of the Spanish-speaking community. From 1994 to 2000, the number of students studying Spanish in grades 7-12 jumped by 800,000 (Draper & Hicks, 2000, p. 1). Despite increasing enrollment and popularity in L2 programs, there is growing angst amongst L2 educators in the United States that a large percentage of American youth lack motivation to learn another language. Amidst growing international concern about the underrepresentation of males in L2 programs across Englishspeaking countries (Carr & Pauwels, 2006; Kissau, 2006;Williams, Burden,& Lanvers, 2002), attention has also been drawn to the lack of participation of American males in advanced-level L2 programs. Recent evidence has emerged that supports the cause for concern over the lack of male motivation to learn languages other than English in the United States. A large-scale study by Heining-Boynton and Haitema (2007) investigating student attitudes toward L2 learning involved thousands of elementary-age students studying French and Spanish in North Carolina. …