Subjective goals as
a motivating force for
language and learning
Published in Danish in Sprogforum 61, 2015, 64-72.
Translated from Danish by John Irons.
“I recall how my grandmother used to sit with all her
English books. She had a great many of them. They were
all extremely fine. Back then I decided that I would
learn English and read all those books!”
(Arta, extract 1, translated from the original Latvian).
All of us have had such moments – moments that have set thoughts
in motion, set action in motion, which in turn led to certain results
that have been important to us. It may have been a particular situation,
a feeling, a thought, and experience of a positive or negative nature.
It is basically such moments that most frequently start us off on our
efforts to attain something – something that is important to us.
The question of objectives or goals is very much in the air in
Denmark at present. People speak about subject-related objectives,
objectives of knowledge, objectives of competence, simplified objectives, long-term objectives and short-term objectives. Objectives are
important, and one really needs to have a objective in view if something is to be learned. But there is a need to introduce light and shade
when discussing objectives. Firstly, because the above-mentioned
concepts mainly tell us something about a result of a process
and nothing about the actual process itself. Not a word about how
elina maslo
Assistant Professor, PhD, Aarhus University
elmaAedu.au.dk
sprogforum 61 . 2015 1
learning processes can take different courses in different individuals,
nor anything about how these learning processes are activated in
the individual. What is it that impels people to learn? What are
people’s subjective goals? How can this knowledge be made use of in
a learning situation? Secondly, these concepts do not provide room
either to talk about the learning processes as complex phenomena
– phenomena that contain an interplay of a number of different
dimensions that interact differently with each other in different
individuals.
The study ‘Multilingual paths to success – language
and learning in transformative learning spaces’
A few examples have been selection for this article from my on-going
study of the experience of multilingual persons about learning
language in order to illustrate how subjective goals can become the
motivation for a person learning many languages, in a life-long
perspective.
In the first extract, the Latvian girl Arta tells of how, as a young
girl, she took the decision to learn English. At the time, she did not
have the slightest idea of “what she would be when she grew up”.
It is the atmosphere to do with her grandmother and her fine books,
the much-loved person sitting in her cosy reading corner, that has
engraved itself on Arta’s mind, that resulted in language became part
of her everyday life and later her professional career. Her interest in
language followed her throughout her time at school and her years
studying. And she still has this interest, and is at present learning
her sixth language.
The above-mentioned study is an investigation of the experience
of multilingual persons regarding language learning and learning
with the aid of language. It is a study of learning diversity, inspired
by Claire Kramsch’s work on The Multilingual Subject (2009) as well as
Phil Benson and David Nunan’s Learners´ stories. Difference and Diversity
in Language Learning (2004) (Benson & Nunan, 2005; Kramsch, 2009).
It has as its point of departure that everyone is different and therefore learns differently: people learn – and learn language – in different contexts, at different times, in different ways, on the basis of
different experiences, motivated by different goals, with different
results and with different emotions. And, not least, individuals
themselves are changed as a result of their learning processes.
sprogforum 61 . 2015 2
Fourteen multilingual adults have talked to me about their experiences when learning a number of different languages as a second
or a foreign language in four different languages (Russian, Latvian,
English and German). These people have been selected as experts
that have experiences in learning languages in different contexts
which they share out. Some of these narratives go beyond the limits
of what we traditionally regard as good language learning. A number
of them talk about certain profoundly subjective motives and motivations for language and learning that are very rarely accessible to
academic research. They talk, for example, about their own personal
recollections and emotions and dreams connected with them – something that belongs to the individual’s emotional life and that is seldom shared with others. These accounts of learning open up new
perspectives on learning and language learning by creating an insight into the individuals’ unique, practical, emotional and symbolical lives in concrete historical contexts (Kramsch, 2009).
In the article here we meet Inese and Arta – two friends who have
both studied English and Danish at Latvia’s university and now work
as translators in Brussels. We meet Eduardo – a young man from
Brazil who works in Denmark, but has a passion for French. And we
meet Nelli – a girl from Russia who has taken part of her education
in Denmark, but subsequently chosen to live and work in Poland.
In this article, it can only be possible to gain a small glimpse of the
learning stories that multilingual persons share with us – here
we hear how Arta chose to learn her second language and her first
foreign language, how Inese started to learn her foreign languages
via her leisure-time activities, how Eduardo keeps his French up
to scratch by reading, and what caused Nelli to study English at a
high level.
Theoretical starting point: language and learning
in complex learning spaces
As far as we know, mankind has never before in the history of the
world been exposed to so many constant changes, so much information to try and navigate in, and in particular so many opportunities
for learning as is the case today. Today, as never before, it is impossible to claim that there is only one world that is the true one, or that
there is one form of knowledge that can be used by each and everyone. People perceive the world differently as a result of their experiences in the different contexts of which they are a part.
sprogforum 61 . 2015 3
By means of this article, I hope to contribute to bringing into
focus the subjective and emotional dimensions of language and
learning.
The study uses as its starting point a broad understanding of language and learning, in which language covers all linguistic and nonlinguistic activities that take place between individuals and also within the single individual in the pyschological, personal, cultural and
historical worlds in which they live (van Lier, 2000). People are able to
learn when they discover the opportunities for learning that arise in
the complex world. This occurs in the interaction between individuals
and their surroundings on the basis of their experiences. Learning
is thus understood as a process that only arises if the individual
actively engages in what are meaningful activities to him or her:
“Learning is not a holus-bolus or piecemeal migration
of meanings to the inside of the learner’s head, but rather
the development of increasingly effective ways of dealing
with the world and its meanings. Therefore, to look for
learning is to look at the active learner in her environment,
not at the contents of her brain.” (van Lier, 2000, 246).
Multilingual narrators concerning language
and learning
“I want to play with him so much!”
Arta, the Latvian girl we met in the introduction, also talks about
another situation she recalls from her childhood. It was the moment
when, at the age of four, she consciously had decided to learn her
second language – Russian. This is how Arta, now 35, remembers her
very first thoughts about learning a language:
“My first experience with language ... when I understood
that I really wanted to be able to speak another language ...
was when I was playing in the sandpit. I was four years old.
A little boy came over to me and said something in Russian.
And I didn’t understand it. As I recall, he wanted to play
with me. But we simply couldn’t ... he didn’t speak Latvian;
I didn’t speak Russian. So nothing came about. And I thought:
“This has got to stop – I want to learn!” And so I did ... I can’t
remember the boy’s face, but I remember the sandpit and
everything around it.” (Arta, extract 2, translated from
the original Latvian).
sprogforum 61 . 2015 4
A number of those who took part in my study talk about various
types of experience they had have during their childhood or adolescence. These are what Claire Kramsch refers to as “embodied experience”
– experiences that leave a profound imprint on our body and mind,
and that in the long term cause us to act (Kramsch, 2009). When Arta
observed her much-loved grandmother reading books in English,
she could feel with her entire body her grandmother’s love of literature. We know nothing about her grandmother’s motives or her feelings in connection with this reading. But the experience of seeing
her grandmother reading made an impression on the young girl.
Arta decided that she wanted to do the same. And she did. Today,
Arta works as an interpreter in Brussels with English, Danish,
Latvian and French, reads a great deal in her spare time and is in the
process of learning German.
In several of the learning stories that my study has gained access
to, the multilingual persons talk about situations where a tremendous energy is generated – fuelled by a desire to attain some completely subjective goals via their language and learning. For some it
is a wish to do like someone they are fond of, or to be like that person.
For others it has to do with situations where it physically almost
hurts not to be able express oneself in a certain language. This experience sets certain processes in motion which result in one attaining
some highly ambitious goals. People tell of love stories, of having lost
a much-loved member of the family, of moving to another country,
of setting out into the great outside world, of friendships ... The
examples mentioned, with the participants’ subjective emotions as
the driving force for learning, actually tell us that learning does
not always accur because one has certain instrumental goals. A completely immeasurable thought can set more learning in motion than
a much too concrete goal for learning1.
“I was mad about tennis”
Apart from highly personal thoughts and dreams, the participants
in the study also talk about using their language in order to get the
chance to cultivate their leisure-time activities. Apart from highly
personal thoughts and dreams, participants in the study state that
they use their languages so as to have an opportunity to cultivate
their leisure-time interests. 27-year-old- Inese from Latvia tells
the story of her great passion. In her early teens, she was highly
interested in tennis. At the time, there was no literature about tennis
in Latvian. For that reason, Inese started to translate tennis maga-
sprogforum 61 . 2015 5
zines from Russian, English and German into her native tongue,
Latvian. She used her dictionaries, joined words up into sentences,
sentences into texts that made extremely good sense to her. She was
12-13 years old at the time. Inese cannot recall where the idea came
from, but there had at any rate never been anyone who had asked her
to do this. It was just something she did. Because she was so interested in tennis...
“If I don’t read in French, I’ll never learn it”
Eduardo from Brazil also pursues his leisure-time activities via his
languages. Eduardo likes to read and to watch films. When doing
this, he does not feel that he is studying his languages. He simply
uses them to read, for example:
“I don´t study! If I had to study I would definitely not learn
the language. But I am curious ... for example “Game of
Thrones” – the book – and I got that in French. “That is
going to be a hell to read!”. Because it is really really hard.
But I just ... I try, because I know, if I don´t do that, I am not
going to learn. So I don´t study like going to school, homework ... but I keep always in contact with the language ... like
as if I met a word I don´t know, I go to the dictionary and
see what it means. And I try not to translate things. I use
French-French dictionary for example, not French-English
or Portuguese.” (Eduardo, extract 3)2.
In this extract, Eduardo talks about his strategies for learning
French. On the basis of his own experiences in learning languages,
Eduardo knows that he has to be in contact with the language to
become better at the language. When Eduardo feels like reading a
new book, he chooses to read it in French instead of English, which
he happens to be very good at. For he knows that if one is to become
good at a language, one must use it for something. And why not use
it to cultivate his hobby – reading? So here we are dealing with a person who does things through another language, driven by his interests, his passion for literature and possibilities to broaden his own
horizons with the aid of language. Actually, he does much more with
his languages than one as a language teacher would expect from “the
good student”.
“He almost became a divine being in my eyes”
sprogforum 61 . 2015 6
Nelli also grew up in a family where a lot of reading was done. She
says that her interest in language therefore came very naturally to
her. When I ask Nelli if she can recall a moment in her life when she
thought “Now I want to learn this language!” she states that apart
from liking English a great deal at school, she experienced the
following situation that set crucial thoughts in motion inside her:
“One of the boys at our school ... he was about three years
older than me ... wrote in the town newspaper about his trip
to America ...
I travelled with the same programme when I myself later
went to USA ...
The boy’s trip sounded like a fantastic event! I thought that
only those absolutely selected can get through a competition
for such a trip. For the actual selection for the trip is a really
long process, one that lasts almost a whole school year and
consists of several stages ... In other words, the boy almost
became a divine being in my eyes ...
And afterwards he came over to us after his one-year stay
in America, and told us about it. At the school, people talked
about him as if he was an almost mystical figure – “Him there,
Andrey, he’s been in America! He’s so gifted! ” ...
And then we heard that the American Councils for International
Education had this competition every year in the whole of Russia,
and that there would be a new round in September and that we were
welcome to go and try ... I thought that I would do that just to find
out what level my English was at ... without any ambitious plans of
something like that ... But when I got through one round after the
other, and was finally told I had been selected, it was of course completely fantastic! Particularly that one could say as a 15-year-old that
one has achieved something so important completely on one’s own!”
(Nelli, extract 4, translated from the Russian)
Nelli has been a very independent and focused child at school.
She has always used the opportunities the school offered her to learn
– especially to learn languages. But just as in the case of Arta, with
the wish to learn to read in English, we can see from this extract
how Nelli is not exclusively motivated by purely subject-related
objectives about being good at school. She experiences a situation
where her senses and emotions are involved in the task of setting up
and achieving a goal that is personally important – to go on a study
year to USA. A schoolmate’s mention of his success and his experi-
sprogforum 61 . 2015 7
ences in a foreign country sets other children in motion in wanting
to be part of the mystery. So we are here dealing with some emotional, social and cognitive processes that interact in the individual,
the active individual, in conjunction with others in the actual
contexts.
Subjective goals as the key to learning – it must
be meaningful to the individual
Learning only takes place when the learner is actively involved in
meaningful activities. This means that the content must first be
accepted by the individual as something that makes sense to him or
her, for that person to subsequently be capable of actively getting
involved in the exploration of this relevant content. So in this article
I argue that the student or the learner becomes involved in the setting up of learning objectives understood as subjective goals (Dam
& Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée, 2001), and
that in this process on includes “the endless horizons” in one way or
another (see note 1). If we as teachers do not forget that we can help
our students to find meaning in what they learn or, even better, allow
our students to include their own life-questions into the classroom,
we will give our students the opportunity to find new ways of being
themselves:
“We are fooling ourselves if we believe that students learn
only what they are taught. While teachers are busy teaching
them to communicate accurately, fluently, and appropriately,
students are inventing for themselves other ways of being
in their bodies and their imaginations. Success in language
learning is an artifact of schooling, of the need by institutions
to demarcate those who know from those who don’t, but the
language-learning experience itself is neither successful nor
unsuccessful. It can be lived more or less meaningfully and
can be more or less transformative, no matter of what level
of proficiency has been attained.” (Kramsch, 2009, 4).
If learning has to do with active involvement in meaningful activities, the main task of the teacher must be to arouse curiosity that can
become subjective goals, and that hopefully can be linked to the objectives of the school.
So the question is how the school can contribute to creating
experiences which can set certain thoughts in motion, which in turn
sprogforum 61 . 2015 8
can lead to certain results that are personally important to us. Experiences that can give us the opportunity to experience how it really
feels – with our entire body and mind – to wish to achieve a subjectrelated goal ...
One of the things Claire Kramsch would remind language language teachers of it that they should not forget that they themselves
are multilingual subjects. If they think more about their memories,
passions, interests and ways of being and living that are meaningful
to them, if they share their feelings about language with their
students, if they tell their students their own particular story, it will
give the students the opportunity to find their own way of living in
the language.
Notes
1. Here I feel tempted to reproduce
a much-used quotation of Antoine
de Saint Exupéry which one of those
taking part in the study, Inese from
Latvia, has translated from German
into English: “If you want to build a ship,
don’t drum up people to collect wood and
don’t assign them tasks and work, but
rather teach them to long for the endless
immensity of the sea” (Antoine de Saint
Exupéry, Inese’s translation from
German). The quotation in the German edition comes from a website
about the Ganztagsschule (all-day
school) in Germany. The quotation has
been chosen to illustrate the concept
of work in the ‘learning landscapes’
at a house of learning in OsterholzScharmbeck: http://www.lernhausim-campus.de/index.php/konzept/
lernlandschaften.
2. All the examples used in the article
have been read through and accepted
by the persons themselves. The extracts have been reproduced in their
original form, apart from extract 3,
which has been changed by Eduardo.
Litteratur
Benson, P., & Nunan, D. (2005). Learners’
stories : Difference and diversity in
language learning. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Dam, L., & Association Internationale
de Linguistique Appliquée. (2001).
Learner autonomy : New insights. Milton
Keynes: AILA.
Kramsch, C. (2009). The multilingual
subject : What foreign language learners say
about their experience and why it matters.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
van Lier, L. (2000). From input to
affordance: Social-interactive learning
from an ecological perspective. In J.
Lantolf (ed.), Sociocultural theory and
second language learning (pp. 245-259).
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
sprogforum 61 . 2015 9