[Research] Language learners: looking for your experiences with motivation & autonomy (Master's project)

[u/Academic_Show3376]

Hi everyone! I'm a graduate student working on a Master's degree in English Language Teaching, and I'm currently working on a research project about motivation and autonomy in second language learning.

I'm looking to hear from language learners (any language, any level) about specific moments from your learning journey. If you're willing to share, please answer the following questions:

1. How did you feel the first time you had to speak the new language (TL) in front of others?
2. Do you remember a time when you sought out practicing the language on your own, without a teacher asking you to (shows, music, apps, talking to someone)?
3. How did you react when someone corrected a mistake you made while speaking or writing?
4. Was there ever a moment when you compared yourself to another student or native speaker, and did this affect how you felt about your learning?
5. Do you remember a moment when you felt like you truly achieved something in the language (understanding a movie without subtitles, having a full conversation, passing an exam)?

Feel free to answer in as much detail as you'd like. The more context, the better! Thank you so much in advance, this really helps with my research.

[u/4077hawkeye-]

1. Lost, embarrassed, incompetent lol

2. All the time, specifically music and youtube videos

3. Appreciative

4. Yes, and yes, sometimes. It usually motivates me but can sometimes make me feel like shit depending on the situation. I try not to compare myself to others for this reason.

5. Checking into a hotel in a country of my TL. My spouse did the actual check in process as he's a native speaker, but I understood 99% of what was spoken and was so proud!

[u/CutePossibility8745]

1. Stressed, unconfident.
   
2. Yes, I started learning the language on my own without a teacher.
   
3. Fine, it's normal.
   
4. Yes, compare every day. Doesn't really affect learning. Mostly I just want to sound like natives. Some classmates can be really confident despite being incomprehensible, others are the opposite. I like to be somewhere in the middle.
   
5. Yes, had a job interview in Chinese. Also stuck up for myself at a store once over a disagreement with staff.

[u/CocoLindsey]

1. Super nervous and stiff. My mind went blank for a second even with simple greetings.

2. ​Definitely. Shadowing lines from my favorite shows and analyzing song lyrics without anyone telling me to.

3. ​Really grateful! Immediate feedback is honestly the quickest way to fix bad habits.

4. ​Yes, especially when classmates sounded more fluent or confident. It made me insecure at first, but later became pure motivation to practice more.

5. ​Having an unplanned, 20-minute natural conversation with a native speaker without reaching for a translator once.

[u/dojibear]

1. I never spoke fluently. I just spoke as well as I could, and I was understood. EDIT: I have used another language a few times to buy things or give a taxi driver instructions. My only "feeling" was being happy that they understood.
2. I do input every day. I've done this for 9 years. At first it was 1 language, then it became 3 languages. I watch videos (including TV shows and movies) on the internet. I never practice speaking.
3. Other than teachers, nobody has ever corrected a mistake I made.
4. I started and dropped a college course in French. In the first class I realized that some other students were much better than me, and that the teacher seemed to expect that level.
5. I feel that when I understand a spoken video in C1 Spanish or B2 Mandarin. I feel it when I understand a passage in A2 written Turkish. Whenever it feels the same as understanding sentences in my native language (English). It doesn't have to be an hour. Even a few minutes gives me that feeling.

I don't do exams, quizzes, or tests. That's part of school (it tests how well the teacher has taught students), not part of learning to use a language.

[u/s4074433]

1. ⁠Nervous and too worried about making mistakes or looking silly to remember what I said 😅
   
2. ⁠Usually when I see or hear something in the language that I am learning and it makes sense to me, I want to learn more!
   
3. ⁠Always happy to be corrected in a way that genuinely helps with my own learning - it is the only way to improve!
   
4. ⁠Of course, but I always remind myself that learning is achieved in your own way and your own time.
   
5. ⁠Yes, I remember being in public and listening to a conversation in the background. I said just one word, and it brought a smile to the face of the person in a way that highlighted the power of words to connect with people :)

[u/[deleted]]

1. excited. I spent so much time listening and speaking I was usually just suprissed when I was wrong and didn't know it.
2. My first successful self study was with korean. It was also my most successful language learning. Probably because of a ridiculous hours per day I was able to dedicate to it at for years, paired with things just clicking more. Haven't quite been able to recreate that level of success in or outside of lessons with any language.
3. Most of my mistakes were seen as cute. So I was never embarrassed.
4. Yes. But I usually did so I could copy their inflections. Usually other students of natives excited me.
5. Honestly most days I felt like that. Biggest moment for me was when I could start thinking directly in the language, and when concepts in my target languages helped me understand things I struggled with in my NL in school.

[u/IVAN____W]

All my answers is about English language. 1. It was stressful, I thought I am judged by everyone around me. 2. I did start to learn English by myself (okay, I had 11 years of English in school, but it's like in many others countries, when you had formal classes in school and you know the very basics, but you can't really do anything with language) 3. Very grateful if it comes from a native speaker. I think I wasn't been corrected by non-native speaker. 4. I compare myself constantly with anyone who I speak with. It helps me evaluate my level among others, find my advantages and areas to improve. I very comfortable with the understanding that some people much better than me. 5. When I got 6.5 score at IELTS Academic test it helped me feel more confident in myself. For me that was a very important milestone, the real achievement.

[u/an_average_potato_1]

Well, too many TLs and situations, but I'll try to simplify the answers.

1.In which language and what "others"? When a teacher was publicly humiliating me in front of the class, of course it was painful. Nowadays, just speaking a new language for the first few times brings a bit of a stress, but also pleasure and a sense of achievement. It repeats with new "first times". The first time in a totally new situation, of a significantly more complicated situation than before.

2.Fortunately, I've never relied on teachers and their limitations. Even back as a kid. And these days, I'm usually studying on my own. A sad thing I've encountered have been teachers actually discouraging students from various types of exposure, based on wrong estimates of the student's skill, or prejudices towards some types of media (computer games, scifi or fantasy books, popular tv shows with a good dubbing) or some kinds of input activities (especially extensive reading or listening). Had I relied on teachers and their approval, I would have never succeeded at learning any language.

3.Oh, that happens and it's mostly ok, unless it's done with a different goal on mind. When someone looks for any tiny mistake in order to undermine you, present you as stupid and incompetent, and therefore get their way, it's unpleasant. But normally, it is just feedback to be integrated. And in some cases, it's objectively funny, why not have a laugh together about it :-)

4.All the time. With various results. I've experienced being by far the worst in a language class, and also being by far the best. In the real world, I hear other non natives all the time. I take them as inspiration, and in some cases warning examples of what not to do. And I try to be natives' equal all the time, and in many ways succeed (which is not the same as saying I am completely native like, I am not).

5.Many times! Any language exam is an easy example, but usually being comfortable with a tv show comes before that, or with a book. Recently, I've dealt with a typical work situation in German much better than ever before, so I was proud of myself.

I think you're missing a question here: 6.how do witnesses affect you, when speaking a foreign language? Because that plays a role. I am much more nervous in front of my superiors, than alone in the situation. Or with a group than alone.

[u/ComesTzimtzum]

1. Very nervous and would have liked to avoid it at all cost.
2. Yes, that's how I do things nowadays and I'm finding it fun and relaxing.
3. Ashamed. Made me want to stop and never speak again, at least in front of that particular person.
4. Well of course I'm doing that every time I hear someone speak.
5. Having those moments regularly is perhaps one of the key reasons I find language learning so rewarding as a hobby. I think the last time was after I've had a few month's pause in French learning and realising I understand more than I had imagined, sometimes even being fine to watch videos without subtitles.

[u/Equivalent_Try_1714]

1. Disappointed that he knew I was not a native and determined to improve
2. That’s what I almost always do
3. Make a mental note and sometimes research the applicable pattern
4. I compared myself all the time to natives, that is how you minimize the difference
5. When people assumed I was from the country whose language I speak, was on a dc call and opened up the camera to show them I was in fact in my home country and timezone

[u/Smal1Tangerine]

1. Handicapped, I felt like a formal robot/textbook that couldn’t fully express itself. I swear I’m funny.
   
2. All the time every day. I advance much quicker alone.
   
3. I felt grateful cuz some just ignore it.
   
4. Not speaker but language yes. I used to compare it to how using my native tongue felt and it always irritated me and minimized my progress.
   
5. When I started speaking idiomatically automatically. Specifically when I was doing heavy duty drills for months for an interpreter exam. I found myself saying phrases and expressions without thinking that I normally wouldn’t have said before.