Long-Range Goals and Language Use: Results of a Student Survey

Patricia O'Connor

ABSTRACT In a survey conducted at t h e Univer- si ty of Texas at Austin, more than 2,000 lower- division students of Spanish and Portuguese (97.2 percent of them non-language majors) were asked to describe their long-range professional goals, and to speculate how, if at all, t h e ability to understand, speak, read, or wr i te Spanish or Portuguese could be an asset in obtaining these goals. While over 80 percent of t he students sur- veyed indicated their belief t ha t second language

competence could be valuable in their fu ture work, their s ta tements also provide reassuring evidence of the degree to which the cultural and hunanistic goals of language study continue to b e valued by t h e current generation of undergraduates. This a r t ic le includes a description of t he survey and i t s results, as well as a discussion of some of i t s implications for t h e development of specialized, career-oriented language courses and teaching materials.

IN RECENT MONTHS professional meetings

and journals have reflected growing interest in t h e promotion of t he study of foreign languages as auxiliary or supportive skills. While there have been expressions of dismay as well as enthusiasm over such emphasis on t h e utilitarian values of language study,' all of t h e reactions appear to show renewed concern with the role of motivation in language learning. Instrumental motivation, one of t he two types identified and studied with respect to language learning by Wallace Lambert

and his associates as early as 1959,' was the subject of a survey conducted at t h e University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 1974. In this investi- gation more than 2,000 lower-division students in t h e Department of Spanish and Portuguese were asked to describe their long-range professional goals and to speculate how, if at all, their second language skills could be an asset in attaining these goals. The survey dealt only with Spanish and Portuguese, and t h e results necessarily re f lec t t h e f a c t tha t t he majority of t he students involved

1. See, for example, Alan 5. Rosenthal."Foreign Literature in the Academic Superinarket," Foteim LanRuage Annals, 8 (197% 15-17; and 3 0 ~ 6 L. Varela-hrra, USelling LanEuag-," Foreign Language Annals, 8 (1975), 111-13.

2. Lamkrt established the distinction between 'rnstrumen- tal motivation,' in which the purposes of language study ref lect the m a e utilitarian value of linguistic achievement, and 'inte- grative motivation,' in which the student is oriented to learn r n a e about the other cultural commmity as if he desired to

Patricia cy~- (h~., Univcrctr d Tern at Austin) wu Vidting Ri,fmot of spni* and portqueu at t h University Texas at Austin when this rcudy was conducted.

klmg to the group himself. For a summary of Lambert's studies in this area, see Anwar 5. Dil, ed , Language, Rychology, and Cultwe: Essays by Wallace E. Lamkrt (Stanford, C a m Stanfad University Press, 1972), pp. 291-92.

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plan to live and work in t h e Southwest. The study does, however, appear to have some general impli-

cations for those considering t h e development of specialized, career-oriented language courses, as well as for those who a r e simply concerned with ways t o bolster their students' confidence in t h e potential usefulness of foreign language skills.

Along with considerable statist ical informa- tion about t he students' plans for work, study, and

travel a f t e r graduation, t h e survey yielded an ordered list of t he professions and occupations

which seem, at the moment, most a t t rac t ive to a large and representative group. Of grea te r

general interest , perhaps, a r e the students' own s ta tements of thespecific ways in which they hope

to be able to put their second language skills to use. Although the questionnaire had been ex-

pressly designed to focus t h e students' a t ten t ion on t h e practical, utilitarian values of language study,

it is clear from the replies tha t many of the cultur- al and humanistic goals are also alive, well, and highly valued by t h e current generation of under- graduates. While their comments range from the

S tuden t s w e r e asked to descr ibe

the i r long-range professional

goals and to s p e c u l a t e

how the i r second language .

skills could be a n asset in

a t t a in ing t h e s e goals.

sophisticated ("I want to be able to observe and

learn from t h e quality of l ife exemplified by t h e Spanish-speaking peoples") to t h e ingenuous

("Mexico seems so near and so appealing"), and

from the idealistic ("In my field--juvenile rehabiii-

tation--the most important thing is trust. Com-

munication is essential, and Spanish will be a big helpi') to the frankly materialist ic ("Many rich Mexicans do business with U.S. retail firms"), t h e

majority of students' s ta tements testify to their support of many traditional goals of language

study.

The Survey

In many ways the University of Texas at Austin seemed well-suited for an investigation of t h e degree to which the potential professional use of

T h e rep l ies a l so m a d e c l e a r t h a t

many of t h e cu l tu ra l and

humanis t ic goals a r e

a l ive, well, and highly valued by under graduates .

second language skills figures in t h e long-range goals of students of Spanish or Portuguese. Austin's location makes travel t o Mexico relative-

ly easy and inexpensive. Spanish is widely used in t h e area: t h e 1970 census shows 36,623 'persons of

Spanish language,' approximately 15 percent of t he

population, living in A ~ s t i n . ~ Moreover, since a number of t he colleges and schools of t he Univer-

si ty of Texas at Austin maintain a fore ign language requirement ,4 t he students surveyed coul d hardly

be considered self-selecting with respect to their

enthusiasm for language study. Eighty-six percent of the students who completed t h e questionnaire

indicated tha t they had enrolled in their foreign language course because i t was a degree require-

ment; 8.7 percent were taking Spanish or Portu- guese as an elective, and 5.3 percent were studying on a non-credit basis.

3. Census of Population and Housing: 1970 Census Tracts (Austin, Texas: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 19701, p. 27.

4. The Colleges of Humanities, Natwal Sciences, and Social and Behavioral Sciencer, the School of Communication, and the Division of General and Comparative Studies.

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The survey itself was made possible through t h e cooperation of t he Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the campus Center for Measure- ment and Evaluation. I t was based on a brief,

More t h a n half of t h e s t u d e n t s

ind ica ted t h a t t h e y hoped

to start work in t he i r

chosen f ie lds as soon as possible a f t e r graduat ion.

fif teen-item questionnaire enti t led "Long-Range Goals and Language Use" distributed in all sections of nine lower-division Spanish courses and seven lower-division Portuguese courses, and was com- pleted by 2,176 students. In order to keep t h e replies as spontaneous as possible, t h e instructors were asked to distribute t h e questionnaires in

class, explaining simply tha t this was a depart- mental project with which they were asked to cooperate, and to delay any discussion until a f t e r t he completed forms had been collected. The average t ime needed to complete the question- naire was about five minutes. Perhaps because controversial topics had been deliberately ex- cluded (there were no references to t h e language requirement, methods of instruction, or materials in actual use), t h e students' response to the ques- tionnaire was generally positive, with fewer than 1.2 percent of the returns incomplete or invalid. A

number of instructors commented la te r t ha t t h e questionnaire had generated considerable discus- sion, with several students asking for more infor- mation about job opportunities calling for t he combination of foreign language skills and profes- sional specialization in a variety of fields. After t h e questionnaires were collected, t he answers to thirteen of t he f i f teen i tems were coded, key- punched, and machine-processed by t h e campus Computation Center, with the programming s u p

plied by t h e Center for Measurement and Evalua- tion. Answers to the open-ended questions were handled through visual inspection.

While many of t he statist ics derived from t h e objective i tems have chiefly local interest , some statist ical information about t he group as a whole provides a perspective from which to consider t h e ranking of t he students' ca reer goals and their own s ta tements about the ways in which they hope to use Spanish or Portuguese in connection with their future careers. Of t h e total population surveyed, 49.8 percent were male, and 50.2 percent were female. Only 4 percent had Spanish or Portuguese surnames. The average age was 20. Freshmen consti tuted 27.6 percent of t h e group; sophomores, 28.5 percent; juniors, 25.9 percent; seniors, 16

percent; and graduate or special students, 2 per- cent. A variety of undergraduate majors or fields of concentration was represented, with foreign languages ranking in tenth place and accounting fo r only 2.8 percent of the total. Undergraduate majors outranking the combined foreign languages in numbers were: (I) microbiology, (2 ) psychology, (3) government, (4) journalism, ( 5 ) sociology, ( 6 )

radio, television, and film, (7) English, ( 8 ) history, and (9) speech communications.

Six i tems in t h e questionnaire related to the students' medium-range goals. They were asked to indicate, by checking either 'yes' or 'no,' whether each of t h e following figured in their plans for t he first th ree or four years a f t e r graduation: work in their field, specialized or graduate study, military service, volunteer service, marriage, and foreign travel. More than half of t he students (55 percent)

~ _ _ _ _ ~

A surprisingly smal l number

checked fo re ign t r a v e l as f iguring in the i r plans for t h e

f i r s t t h r e e o r fou r years

a f t e r graduat ion. ~ ~ _ _

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indicated tha t they hoped to start work in their

chosen fields as soon as possible a f t e r graduation,

with the highest percentages of affirmative re- plies coming from students majoring in the

Departments of Journalism; Radio, Television, and

Film; Curriculum and Instruction; General Busi-

ness; and Spanish and Portuguese. A slightly smaller number (51.9 percent) said t h a t they planned to continue their education in graduate or

professional schools. Only 1.9 percent planned t o en te r military service, while 7 percent indicated

in te res t in some form of volunteer service, such as Vista or t he Peace Corps. This l a t t e r group was composed chiefly of students with undergraduate

majors in the fields of sociology, psychology, anthropology, and history. Only 17.9 percent

included marriage in their plans for the first f ew years a f t e r graduation, with the highest percent-

ages of affirmative responses to this i tem coming f rom majors in Curriculum and Instruction (36

percent) and foreign languages (29.6 percent), and the lowes t percentages from majors in English (4.8

percent) and microbiology (8 percent). In apparent

contradiction t o the belief t ha t tourism and travel

appeal to students as particularly practical sub-

jects for elementary dialogues and reading selec-

tions, a surprisingly small number of t h e respon-

dents (29.3 percent) checked foreign travel as figuring in their plans. Foreign travel figured most prominently in the replies of students majoring in

languages (64.8 percent), general business (45.9

percent), advertising (36.2 percent), and journal- ism (35.5 percent).

In i tems twelve and thirteen of t he question- naire, t h e students were asked to describe the kind

of work tha t they hoped t o be doing seven years hence;5 t o indicate, by checking 'yes' or 'no,' whether or not they thought tha t t h e ability to

understand, speak, read, or write Spanish or Portuguese would be an asset to them in tha t work,

5. The choice of seven years was arbitrary: ten years seemed too far in the future, while in five years many would s t i l l be in graduate or professional schools.

and to explain the answer in a brief comment. The

students named a to ta l of ninety-eight different professions and occupations as their long-range

goals, and 80.1 percent indicated their belief t h a t competence in Spanish or Portuguese would be an

asset in their work.

Professional Goals

The following fifteen professional fields were 6 t he most popular among t h e students surveyed.

One illustrative student comment is quoted with each listing. While i t is obviously impossible to characterize in a single s ta tement t h e broad range

shown within each group, a sincere e f for t has been made to select representative comments, ones

which reflect the general tenor of t he students' concern.

(1) Medical work and allied health services. "The ability to speak Spanish is an asset in any job in t h e Southwest, especially people-oriented jobs. I hope to be a doctor, and I'm going to find tha t in this par t of t he country t h e ability to com- municate in Spanish is going to mean t h e ability to communicate be t te r with many co-workers, as well as with patients and their families."

( 2 ) Law. "In my experience with t h e c i ty attor- ney's office I saw many Spanish-speaking people who couldn't be adequately helped because of t h e language problem. People who can't speak English well a r e sometimes taken advantage of in our court system."

(3) Education. "So I can speak/listen to t h e other half of Texas.''

(4) Social work. "I want to be able to help Spanish speakers understand t h e services they a r e enti t led to...to explain their rights and to reassure them in their own language. I just wish Spanish came easier for m e because I will really need it."

( 5 ) Journalism, writing, editorial work. "New horizons. I've lived in South America, and I have come to appreciate t h e value of speaking another language as the key t o understanding another culture."

(6) Psychology. "Spanish will give m e a f o o t in t h e door in testing and working with children of Mexican- American background."

6. Following, in order of popularity, were the fields of anthropology, marine biology, computer science, librdry science, retail sales, ranching and farming, religious work, real estate, chemical engrneering. and rnmtc.

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(7) Radio, television, and film production. "I am interested in bilingual educational television. Also, I've already had several opportunities to work on educational, community-affairs-type programs involving Spanish."

(8) Government service, politics, and law enforcement. "Indirectly, speaking any second language is valuable in politics. And certainly if 1 remain in Texas i t will be helpful in gett ing t h e Chicano vote."

(9) Advertising. "I want to work for a big advertis- ing firm, and if I can learn enough Spanish and Portuguese to really use them, I could work in the international division. Advertising re- search is a big, new field in Latin Amer ica"

(10) Public relations. "Being even partly bilingual would be a help to a public relations man in this part of t he country."

(I 1) International business. "I want to work as t h e agent for an international firm. Spanish would help m e understand t h e people, their economy, and t h e general business c l imate so tha t I could help tailor my company's marketing goals to t h e actual needs."

(12) Geology. "There is still lots of oil in South America!"

(13) Ecology and environmental research. "I hope t o be doing something t o help solve air and water pollution problems. Since this kind of research has to b e cooperative among people of different nationalities, t h e ability to use Spanish will be a real asset. I plan to t ake Portuguese too."

80.1% indica ted the i r belief t h a t c o m p e t e n c e in Spanish

o r Por tuguese would be a n asset

in the i r work.

Transportation and travel industries. "I hope t h a t Spanish will he lp m e obtain a job in some part of t he travel industry, and being able to speak it well would give m e a much better chance for a quick promotion." Architecture and urban planning. "I am begin- ning to fee l t h a t Spanish is imperative if I am to be able to communicate with all t h e people I want to. M o s t ci t ies in t h e Southwest have a good group of Mexican-Americans living there, and we need their input directly, not just t h e input of those who speak English easily."

On the Negative Side

There were, of course, some negative re- sponses to the question about t he potential use- fulness of Spanish or Portuguese. Of all t he stu- dents surveyed, 19.9 percent doubted tha t t h e abil- i ty to understand, speak, read, or write either

As s tudents ' c o n t a c t wi th t h e language increases , t h e r e

appea r s to be a corresponding

d e c r e a s e in conf idence t h a t t h e y

will be a b l e to use i t in

connec t ion wi th the i r f u t u r e

work.

language could be an asset in connection with their long-range goals. Incongruously enough, t he majority of negative replies to this i tem came from students in t h e School of Communication. The largest single negative response c a m e from another unexpected quarter: 29.2 percent of t h e students who named 'politics' as a long-range goal s ta ted tha t they saw no way in which proficiency in Spanish or Portuguese could be a professional asset. One student, who s t a t ed tha t in seven years he planned to be doing "the work of t h e Lord," answered the question about t h e professional relevance of Spanish or Portuguese with a n em- phatic "Hell, no!" Of greater consequence is the indication that,

as t he students' contac t with t h e language in- creases, there appears to be a corresponding de- crease in confidence t h a t they will be able to use i t in connection with their fu ture work. A course-by- course tabulation of responses to the question about t he potential professional value of Spanish proficiency shows that, while less than 10 percent

of t he students in the first-semester course an- swered this i tem negatively, t h e percentage of

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negat ive responses increased to slightly m o r e than

I5 percent for second-semester s tudents , to 18.7

percent for third-semester s tudents , a n d to 24

percent f o r fourth-semester students. While th i s

might be in te rpre ted as re f lec t ing f reshman

The t e a c h e r c a n he lp s t u d e n t s at t h e beginning and i n t e r m e d i a t e

leve ls to see themse lves as

poten t ia l second language users.

naivete' a s cont ras ted with sophomore sophisti- ca t ion , i t is worth not ing t h a t juniors outnumbered

f reshmen in t h e f i rs t -semester course by 1.4 per- cent . I t is f a r m o r e likely t h a t these s ta t i s t ics simply r e f l e c t t h e intermediate- level syndrome:

t h e novelty of working with t h e new language has disappeared, t h e demands on t h e learner have

grea t ly increased, and t h e disparity between what

t h e s tudent wants to express and what h e f e e l s

capable of expressing makes progress seem frus- t ra t ing ly slow.

Although most of t h e s tudents who responded negat ively to i t e m s twelve and th i r teen did not add

explanatory comments , approximately one-third of them did. I t s e e m s s ignif icant t h a t the i r com- ments , for t h e most par t , r e f l e c t discouragement about t h e possibility of ac tua l ly acquir ing and maintaining a working knowledge of t h e language, r a t h e r than reject ion of t h e re levance of language s tudy as such--one example: "Ninety percent of t h e people t h a t have taken four s e m e s t e r s of

foreign language as a requirement c a n barely understand i t t w o years l a t e r unless they cont inue to use i t extensively, which pract ical ly none do."

The percentage s t r ikes us as high, bu t in a l l candor w e must a d m i t t h a t t h e s t a t e m e n t does in fact

descr ibe t h e exper ience of many s tudents , perhaps t h e majori ty , who lose c o n t a c t with t h e language

just short of making t h e c r i t i ca l t ransi t ion f r o m language p r a c t i c e to language use.

Implications and a Few Suggestions

A number of implicat ions c a n be drawn f rom

t h e combined indicat ions t h a t t h e s tudents sur-

veyed show a high degree of instrumental motiva-

tion, t h a t they ident i fy as long-range goals a wide range of professions and occupations, and t h a t

the i r confidence in t h e potent ia l usefulness of second language skills appears to diminish a f t e r t h e f i r s t semes ter of language study.

One implicat ion s e e m s to b e t h a t specialized,

professionally-oriented language courses , popular 7 and successful though they have proven to be,

m a y be too l i t t l e and too l a t e to provide e f f e c t i v e motivat ional support for t h e majori ty of beginning

and intermediate- level s tudents : 'too l i t t l e ' in t h e sense t h a t p rac t ica l considerat ions usually pre-

c lude t h e offer ing of courses or ien ted toward m o r e t h a n t h e t h r e e or four most popular professional fields, and 'too l a t e ' in t h e sense t h a t such special- ized courses are rarely avai lable below thefour th- or f i f th-semester levels. This survey, on t h e o t h e r hand, points to t h e advisability of support ing in- s t rumenta l motivat ion in connect ion with a g r e a t

divers i ty of goals and interests--and doing so ear ly in t h e s tudents ' language learning experience. If t h e desire f o r 'real' language use i s as powerful a mot iva tor as i t would appear to be, perhaps a f e w ear ly and regular 'nibbles on t h e c a r r o t at t h e end

of t h e s t ick ' would encourage m o r e s tudents to cont inue the i r foreign language s tudy beyond t h e minimum requirement o r to seek o u t opportuni t ies to maintain the i r second language skills a f t e r the i r

formal s tudy has ended. Even within t h e confines of a crowded syllabus,

t h e r e a r e a number of things which a n individual t e a c h e r c a n do to help s t u d e n t s at t h e beginning

and in te rmedia te levels to see themselves as potent ia l second language users. A f i r s t s t e p could be t h e ident i f icat ion of t h e s tudents ' c a r e e r goals through a n informal c lass survey. This could b e

followed by discussion, in English if need be, of

s o m e spec i f ic professional s i tuat ions in which

7. See, for example, ADFL Bulletin, 6, i i (1974), 5-16, for detailed reports on several such programs.

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competence in the foreign language could be necessary or helpful. With the instructor's help, t h e students could go on to identify specific gram- matical structures w areas of vocabulary which would occur in those situations with high frequen-

cy. The instructor might prepare short, topical vocabulary lists consisting of a few nouns, verbs, and adjectives related to each of t h e most popular careers. The students could be asked to use i tems related to their own goals in specific grammatical patterns, or to incorporate them in short, tightly controlled compositions. An assignment such as "Rewrite each of t h e sentences in exercise X,

substituting i tems from your own topical vocabu- lary l ist wherever they would make sense'' would be valuable from a motivational as well as a lin- guistic point of view.

Another technique, particularly appropriate for the intermediate level, when many students become discouraged and inhibited by t h e linguistic tug-of-war between the opposing goals of fluency and accuracy, is to provide fo r brief but regular 'fluency practice sessions' during which the stu- dents a r e encouraged to use any means other than English to express themselves, let t ing, for t he moment at least, t he grammatical chips fall where they may. Language games of various sorts, such as variations of "Twenty Questions" or "I've Got a Secret," adapt themselves well to this type of activity, as do 'foreign language filibusters,' in which the students practice in pairs, with one member of each pair attempting to speak continu- ously on any topic o r combination of topics for a given period of t ime (usually one to three minutes), while his partner encourages him with appropriate linguistic response signals. It is, of course, essen- tial tha t t he students understand t h e objectives of this type of practice, as well as the reasons for such an artificial separation of t he usually paired goals of fluency and accuracy. Fluency practice of this sor t provides a pedagogical bonus in tha t i t gives the instructor an opportunity to make note of particularly pervasive phonological, grammatical, or lexical problems and to plan remedial work fo r a la te r time.

The area of listening comprehension offers in- teresting possibilities for strengthening t h e stu- dents' confidence in their ability to cope with language use beyond t h e classroom through the early and frequent use of short, recorded or video- taped programs of 'real' material. Such programs would consist of excerpts from radio and television commercials, public service announcements, newscasts, lectures, and dramatic shows, and each would be accompanied by a set of very limited, very closely defined objectives for listening com- prehension. In t h e past we have usually considered excerpts from radio or television to be unsuitable fo r beginning students, knowing tha t they were not ready for such diversity of vocabulary and struc- ture, and fearing tha t t he experience of trying to follow the material would simply end in boredom or frustration. Now, fortunately, increased sophistication in the delineation of limited com- prehension objectives permits t he use of 'real' audio and video material in beginning classes to good effect.

Increased sophistication in t h e

delineation of l imited comprehension

objectives permits t h e use of 'real' audio and video material

in beginning classes. ~~

For example, on t h e most elementary level, one such program might consist of a number of short passages in the ta rge t language, delivered at normal speed by speakers exemplifying several different social and regional dialects. Inter- spersed with these would be a number of equally varied passages in other, related languages. The students' task is simply t o identify the passages in t h e target language. For a slightly more advanced program, a tape might contain a number of short excerpts from radio commercials, news broad- casts, and dramatic programs. The students' task

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would be to identify the general purpose of the message by checking one of several English choices on an answer sheet: t he speaker was trying to sell something, reporting the news, having an argument, etc. More challenging, but still appro- priate for a group of beginners, would be a program composed entirely of radio commercials, with the task being the identification, in the most general terms, of the product or service advertised: whether the speaker was attempting to promote a cold drink, a used-car lot, or a restaurant.

Since listening comprehension exercises of this sort a r e intended to be supportive and confidence- building, the key to their success lies as much in the writing of the objectives as in the selection of material: i t is the careful delineation of what to listen for (and hence, by exclusion, what to ignore)

Ca re fu l de l inea t ion of what to listen for permits t h e

beginner to r e l a x in t h e

presence of unfamil iar mater ia l .

that permits t he beginner to relax in the presence of unfamiliar material. Of course, the same tech- niques, and even many of the same recorded samples, can be used on more advanced levels with

different, more demanding objectives. Regardless of the level on which they a re used, however, such materials provide a refreshing contrast t o t he con- trolled cadences of most language laboratory practice tapes and accustom the student to

hearing the foreign language delivered in a variety of styles, levels of formality, and regional dialects

in much the same way as if he were hearing them in the country itself.

The supplementary use of career-specific and interest-specific materials offers another way to

help student’s see the transition from language practice to language use as an attainable goal. In the University of Texas at Austin survey, 80.6

percent of the students indicated that they would be interested in working with foreign language materials related to their own fields of study-- although a number of them were careful to specify that they would be interested only if they received credit for the additional work. The problem, of course, lies in the paucity of suitable material and, as many teachers can testify, t h e immense amount of t ime and effor t required to collect and prepare such material for student use. Ideally, one can envision the existence of a library of short, career- specific and interest-specific mini-units or mod- ules, programmed for individualized use and con- sisting of current printed, recorded, and visual materials relevant to a variety of fields. However, the need for constant revision and updating makes such projects unlikely as commercial ventures, and t h e best hope for their development may l ie in the organization of cooperative endeavors through which current foreign language materials related to many different fields can be assembled, proc- essed, duplicated, and shared.

Perhaps the students themselves, being more aware of local resources related to their own interests than their instructors could possibly be, can suggest ways to relate their foreign language study to their long-range goals. One student who

1 listed teaching English overseas as a career choice

wrote at the bottom of her questionnaire the sug- gestion tha t language students be organized on a volunteer basis to help with the orientation of foreign students during the first few weeks of their s tay on the campus. She added that such an experi-

ence, in addition to helping the new arrivals, could help her and others like her overcome a ‘block’ against using a foreign language outside the dass-

room.

A final student comment seems apposite. After completing the questionnaire, one student was heard to remark that not since he was six years old had anyone asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. If we a re truly concerned with the problem of foreign language motivation--not to mention foreign language enrollment--perhaps we should ask tha t question more often.