Motivation in Portuguese students of Spanish, a foreign language: dimensions of motivational analysis

Abstract

Motivation plays an important role in the student’s attitude in any area of knowledge, that is to say, it clearly provides a more meaningful and fruitful learning. This investigation presents a specific set of motivational analysis dimensions (self-perceptual, socio-cultural, linguistic-utilitarian, technical and pedagogical didactic) which allows to reveal elements that characterise the motivational profile of the Portuguese student. Through these mentioned dimensions some educational aspects are analysed, such as: personal preferences, lexicon, culture, linguistic ability, resources used, and teaching methodologies, among others, besides respective motivational degrees related to the training of the Portuguese student when learning the Spanish language as a foreign language. Therefore, taking into account the importance of motivation in the school context and its multidimensional nature, a pedagogical data collection tool is suggested, a survey, as an instrument to help understand and clarify student motivations.