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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Polish Adolescents’ Perceptions of English and Their Desire to Learn It

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In the process of foreign language learning the way in which students perceive the language may have a strong facilitative impact on their language acquisition process, especially when this perception is positive (Despagne, 2010). Unfortunately, it has not yet been clearly established whether the relationship between perceptions and foreign language achievement can be explained by the moderating power of the student’s desire to learn the foreign language. For the purpose of this paper it is hypothesized that the learner’s perception of the foreign language is strongly related to the desire to learn it, leading to higher achievement in cases of positive perception. In order to corroborate this hypothesis, 609 secondary grammar school students responded to a questionnaire including Kissau’s scales of Perception of English (2006) and Desire to Learn English. The results of the study show that students who have a negative perception of English do not feel a need to learn it, and vice versa. This finding supports the view that a positive perception of a foreign language induces a greater desire to learn it. In the case of English the reasons for this opinion can be traced back to the overpowering dominance of English as a lingua franca. Moreover, positive perceptions of a language are connected with higher final grades, owing to the social impact of this form of assessment. However, self-perceived levels of foreign language skills appear to be unrelated to perceptions of English. This result can be traced back to the effects of institutionalized learning, as well as the clash between the school reality and mythologized allure of this language.