10.

Familiarise learners with the target

language culture
Comments such as the following three were common, with many
students using the word 'culture' without defining what they
meant by this. They were aware of the importance of culture and
its link to the language they were learning:
Understand more about Germany and its culture
(Student 11).
Understand culture of the French people (Student 77).
Understand other cultures and life styles (Student 131).
Some students did comment on static elements of a culture:
"Understand...a/1 the French landmarks" (Student 105), whereas
others were beginning to articulate a more dynamic view of
culture and the importance of differences in behaviour and
actions that will help them communicate:
Understand more about how other cultures are different
(Student 10).
Understand French culture and see how French is
different to other languages (Student 84).
Understand a lot more about other cultures in the world
and how different they live to us (Student 97).
Understand people's cultures, broaden my horizons
(Student 115).
Be able to say a few words like 'hello' that are good to
know if you meet a person from that place (Student 137).

learning as a result of their teachers' participation in the

languages professional development programmes. All three
groups showed high levels of agreement that student learning
outcomes were positively affected (see Table 1 ).
Students were likewise surveyed about their language learning
experiences. Students appeared confident that their language
skills were improving, and most indicated that they would like to
continue learning this (75.7% responded 'yes') or another
(83.1%) language. They did, however, show that they tended to
NOT use the target language in other environments: the
playground (65.5% responded 'not at all'), other lessons (56.9%),
nor at home (46.3%), indicating an association between learning
the language and their language classroom or teacher. Students
were evenly split (50.8% yes, 48.9% no, 0.3% missing response)
on whether learning the target language would help them to
understand their first language.
Students also claimed to be making improvements to their
knowledge about other peoples and cultures (52.7% felt they had
learnt 'a lot'), and felt capable of telling a speaker of the language
something (61.3%) about themselves in the target language.
66.8% said they sometimes tried to use the language whenever
they could, even when they made mistakes. Students also
sometimes (46.6%) or often (47.9%) felt okay about making
mistakes in the language. 73.8% said their teacher often
explained the language in a way that helped them to learn, and
that the language activities they did in class sometimes (38.3%)
or often (73.8%) helped with learning the language. 51.1% said
they sometimes heard their teachers using the language in other
lessons. 61.7% said they found learning the language easy, and
83.1% thought they could apply the language skills they were
learning to another language.
While the evaluation measured the participants' perceptions of
student language learning, it was the role of the facilitators,
whose professional development programmes were under
evaluation, to measure the success of the students' learning.
The evaluation team had access to facilitators' reports on student
learning data but not to the raw data itself. Student achievement
was evidenced by statements such as:

Talk with my friend that can speak French and

understand other European countries better (Student
200).

Student Learning Outcomes

The above sections on the evidence of the students' motivation to
learn a second language begs the question, did their classroom
language learning experiences and their teachers' use of
motivational strategies have an impact on their learning
outcomes?
Evidence was gathered through the teacher,
facilitator and principal questionnaires.
In their respective questionnaires, the teachers, facilitators and
principals were asked a range of questions regarding students'

It is particularly heartening to see that the greatest

increases have been made in areas of more complex
language use: i.e. . . .for students, in free language
practice where they are generating their own language,
rather than simply practising formulaic language which
they have been taught (Institution 1, Milestone 5, p. 2).
The target language utterances were quantitatively and
qualitatively more sophisticated than was evident in visit
2 and in two observations the students were heard to be
having extended conversations (Institution 2, Milestone 7,
p. 11).

Table 1: Teacher, facilitator and principal perceptions of student learning outcomes

Teacher
n = 23

Freq
%
Students are more confident in the target language
21
91.3
_cl_QQ!!)____ ..________ .... --- - -------- - -Students are more willing to take part in the
20
87.0
..language ..activities .................................... ...........................
20
87.0
.students are more curious. about _language learning
Students are more able to talk about their language
17
73.9
. l.a.tr:iir:,g J<Pr.i11g--- .................. __ __ __ ....... .... .... .... .......
Students are more likely to communicate with each
15
65.2
.. otherinthe .targetlangua ge . .... .. . ..... ---- --- ..
20 ------''-'--'-=----87.0
__Students are ..more ..engad in the_.lessons..__ -+--'-----i
Students are more able to talk about how they learn
15
65.2
the target lanquaae

Principal
n = 11
%
Freq

Facilitator
n=4
%
Freq
4

100.0

75.0

75.0

75.0

100.0

-.---

100.0

11

100.0

----

------------ - ----- .. ---

.......

........... ....... . .

75.0

11

--------

........

75.0

Proceedings of the NZALT international biennial conference, 6th - 9th July 2008

9
81.8
------------------- .. --9

81.8

72.7

81.8

---------------- ---

-------

---------------------91.9
10 ---- ---- -

52