Multilingualism and its affective factors: Narrative analysis of students’ linguistic biography at Universitat Jaume I

Abstract

The emergence of positive or negative attitudes towards language learning, also known as the affective factors, can significantly affect not only students' academic but also private lifetime. According to Henter (2013), negative attitudes and lack of motivation of learners can turn out to be the major stumbling block to language learning. However, Henter’s hypothesis is limited because there are many other reasons which can affect students’ learning processes such as feeling anxious towards a language due to their personal experiences. Thus, the aim of the present paper is to analyze students’ life histories based on their language experiences, also known as narratives, at Universitat Jaume I in order to find out if any affective factors were present during the acquisition of a specific language. The analysis will be based on semi-structured interviews using 7 questions which will be freely answered by multilingual students between 21 and 27 years old. The study will seek to observe the affective factors which have influenced students more deeply, according to their narratives. Drawing from the semi-structured interviews and the analysis of the resulting narratives, the results revealed that most of the students have become multilinguals thanks to: 1) motivation and positive attitudes they have received from the people surrounding them; 2) positive attitudes because of their self-study watching TV series and talking with foreign friends. Nonetheless, there was one result coming out of the blue which had to do with religion affecting positively a devotee in her private lifetime.