Teaching Specialised Varieties of English in the French Higher Education Context: Motivational Faults

Résumé 0

Even though motivation is considered the “driving force” in second language learning (Dörnyei 2005: 65), it is widely acknowledged that students in the French higher education system lack motivation to learn specialised varieties of English (SVE). In pursuit of correcting this fault, we suggest that SVE courses should integrate specialisedness, a term first coined by Michel Petit (2005) and later fully conceptualised in the intentionality theory of languages for specific purposes by Michel Van der Yeught (2016). Specialisedness is not only reflected in SVEs, but is also present in disciplinary and professional cultures of specialised communities. To test this supposition empirically, we designed a 10-module course of English for psychologists that included two categories of tasks in each module: high in specialisedness and low in specialisedness. To measure students’ intrinsic motivation in relation to the degree of specialisedness of the task, we asked them to indicate the task they preferred at the end of each module. Moreover, taking into account the role of motivation in the efficiency of the learning process (Harmer, 2001), we examined how students performed in both types of tasks.The results of the experiment, conducted on more than three hundred psychology students, revealed that approximately seventy per cent of the students felt more motivated by the tasks high in specialisedness, and nearly ninety per cent of the students provided correct answers to the questions related to such tasks. In addition, a more detailed analysis of the data allowed for a better comprehension of the factors that might influence student motivation and, consequently, enhance the efficiency of their learning. These factors include the creative aspect of a task, its technical nature, and the level of intellectual engagement required to accomplish the task.