Levels of motivation and confidence among first year university learners

This paper explores some motivational aspects of foreign language grammar learning. Subjects are Irish first-year university students of German with five years’ previous language learning experience. Findings are presented with regard to learners’ reaction to a dedicated grammar class which was designed in order to assist students in the transition from a primarily memory-based approach to language learning to a cognitive-analytical approach. Two cross-sectional sets of investigations were conducted, one at the beginning of the first semester and the other at the end of the second semester, in which both qualitative and quantitative elicitation instruments (interviews and questionnaires) were used. Results for the questionnaires and the follow-up interviews conducted at the end of semester two of year one reveal that learners reacted positively to the grammar programme and that confidence levels with regard to German grammar learning and usage had increased.