March-­June 2006: Making the most of the less-­than-­perfect 114

In the end, Marianne’s decision to voice her concerns pays off and during the following lessons she is pleased to see that the instructor seems to have abandoned her plan to continuously rotate the students’ study partners allowing her to work with John on a permanent basis. The change brings great relief to Marianne and as a result her motivation is at least partially restored. As a result of this, as the course unfolds,

Marianne’s attitudes undergo a gradual shift and she begins to feel more positive about the learning environment:

I am warming to her style a little bit more ‘cause I kind of think we are learning a little bit, like I am actually finding myself learning a little bit, so maybe it works… I still don’t like the instructor, but one thing that she is really good at is pronunciation: she spends quite a lot of time on that, so that’s been really helpful, ‘cause I found that some teachers just expect you to pick it up along the way, while she goes out of her way to drill it into you and it has made quite a difference. Like I realise now I naturally roll my Rs, and I have never done that before. (M1)

We do speak Italian a lot in class. And that’s one of the good things. She says it and then we say it, and then she says it and then we say it and again and again and again and then we have little conversations with the person next to us, so there is quite a focus on speaking together a lot, which is really good. But I can still only order a drink… (laughs) (M1)

While improving her Italian pronunciation was not one of Marianne’s specific learning goals, she recognises that this as an important and often neglected element the lessons are indeed helping her improve. The course’s focus on developing the students’ oral skills is also a welcome feature, and although Marianne does realise that the range of language tools that are available to her is still rather limited (“I can still only order a drink”), she appreciates the opportunity of practicing her oral Italian and so gain some confidence in this aspect of the language. In sum, Marianne’s comments suggest that she is finding the course content and activities somewhat valuable to her learning, a factor that helps sustain her motivation.

Nevertheless there are still some points of concern. The lack of explicit grammar teaching, for example, still bothers Marianne:

(the grammar) it’s in the back (of the textbook) but it’s not really embedded into the things we do in class, so you’re not learning some kind of structure… I find that I scribble in the front and the back of my book, like ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘but’, you know all the little bricks of language… and I find I struggle with that a bit ‘cause it’s fairly easy to remember the word for cable car or you know shoe or apple… That isn’t difficult. But there is no point

to me knowing what the word for pear is if I can’t make a sentence with it. It’s like pointing at objects and go ‘Pera17 !’ (laughs) ‘Pompelmo18 !’ (laughs). (M2)

In Marianne’s view, the main drawback of the no-grammar philosophy is that it restricts the range of language she is learning to produce. Also, Marianne is annoyed by the fact that while she has been made to believe this is a way to learn which benefits all beginner learners, it is clear from the teachers’ comments in class that it is assumed that all students are prospective tourists. This is particularly disturbing to Marianne, not only because she does not believe that a no-grammar approach can lead to the kind of learning that she envisages for herself, but also because she resents the assumption made about her identity as a learner:

I just think that she speaks as though people are going overseas, and she has all these funny little jokes about it and I find that really annoying because not everyone is learning Italian to go on holiday and I actually have other reasons…. I just find it annoying more that anything. (M2)

Nonetheless, even in spite of such reservations, Marianne continues attending the classes: the course might not be strictly tailored to her needs, nor the fastest route to learning, but it offers some important advantages for Marianne, in particular in terms of its manageability:

It’s only one hour a week which is good, because I feel that by the end of the hour I am starting to lose my attention and so I am quite enjoying that, it’s just like a little taste every week, your are learning just enough to actually remember it instead of overloading and forgetting half of it so I am quite enjoying that. (M2)

The homework is always easy, yeah it’s no problem keeping up with it, I understand now why it’s stretched out over the whole year ‘cause it’s not that intensive which is actually quite nice. (M2)

The non-intensive nature of the course is beneficial not only in terms of the ease of acquisition that derives from the small amount of material covered each week, but also motivationally, in that a less demanding study programme offers an increased chance of success, and feelings of success can increase self-confidence and therefore motivation.

17 _‘pear’

Of course, one of the possible downsides of an undemanding course is that progress can be very slow, but while Marianne admits that this is indeed the case, this does not seem to represents a deterrent to her motivation:

I think I realised that it’s going to be more of a long haul then I thought, like it’s probably going to take years and years and years to be able to learn the language even at a basic level… But this has probably strengthened my resolve a little bit, cause now it’s just something that I do, so it’s just something like breathing or eating or… It’s not a real commitment; it’s kind of like going to the gym. (M2)

The reasons why Marianne seems to have such a relaxed attitude towards potentially demotivating elements of her language environment are to be found in the way she understands her commitment to learning her heritage language, and in particular in the fact that she is not working towards specific proficiency goals and/or within a strict time frame. As we have seen, Marianne’s main objective is to “stick with it”, or, in other words, to find a balance between effort and sense of progress that will sustain her motivation throughout the duration of her language learning, however long that might take. Marianne realises she could look for a faster, more intensive way to learn Italian, but the cost of that in terms of the time and effort she would have to expend on her studies would be counterproductive:

A: Is there any advantage to this kind of learning?

M: It’s not particularly stressful, and it’s short, it’s not particularly demanding, it’s easy to go for an hour and remain interested and not get bored and switch off, and I feel it suits my lifestyle at the moment, it does.

A: So it’s a compromise, you could be learning a lot more but you’d also have to do a lot more

M: And I wouldn’t want to do more. No, no. I guess the only way I could do would be to do extra study outside the normal… Which I am not keen to do, cause I sort of want to keep it in balance… (M4)

Marianne is not interested in rearranging her life around her language learning and although learning her heritage language is clearly a strong ambition for Marianne, she realises that she will have a greater chance of success by choosing to approach it in a way that makes no special demands on her time and energy and that does not upset her current lifestyle. Marianne’s position can also be explained in terms of the multiple and opposing identity investments: her investment in realising a fuller Italian identity

through the learning of her heritage language needs to be balanced with her desire to maintain her current identity. In this sense, Marianne’s motivation to learn her HL is clearly the product of her identity wishes.