An investigation of the relationships between students’ future L2 selves and L2 performance in two secondary schools in England
An investigation of the relationships between students’ future L2 selves and L2 performance in two secondary schools in England

Summary/Abstract: In England, fewer and fewer secondary-school students decide to continue studying a foreign language. Nonetheless, there is a lack of context-specific research applying the most recent theories on second language (L2) motivation to better understand students’ attitudes to modern foreign languages (MFL). This article reports on the quantitative findings of a mixed methods inquiry which adopted the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) to explore the relationships between future L2 selves and L2 performance among secondary students in England. A survey was conducted on 397 students of French in the second and fourth year of secondary education from two schools in the East of England. They responded to an L2MSS questionnaire, the results of which were correlated to the students’ current grades in French. The results showed that all the three perceived future L2 selves variables significantly correlated with L2 performance with different intensity, with the ideal L2 self being most strongly associated with L2 performance. Accordingly, this article recommends further research on the relationship between attitudes and performance in MFL in the form of action-research in order to devise and implement pedagogies aimed at strengthening secondary students’ future L2 selves to increase L2 performance.

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