This article presents some of the findings relating to a study on pupils’
perceptions of the in-school foreign language learning experience. This represents
one area of a larger, accelerated longitudinal study on the motivational
perspectives of secondary school pupils learning German. What are the factors which
influence pupils’ views of what goes on in the classroom? What are their
likes and dislikes? How do they feel the in-school experience could be enhanced? Can
this help identify what it is that leads to the apparent diminution in enthusiasm
for learning (languages) between the ages of 11 and 13? The article also has a
comparative dimension, as the same questions are asked in relation to the
English-learning experience of comprehensive school pupils of the same age in
Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. What can be learned from these findings
which may have a beneficial influence on how languages are taught?
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