Resumen de Accessing a global community through L2 learning: a comparative study on the relevance of international posture to EFL and LOTE students
Due to the ‘global English bias’ in the field of L2 motivation, many motivational constructs have been primarily investigated in relation to learners of English. One of these, international posture, has been recently found to hold some relevance to LOTE students. Despite this, no research has examined comparatively similarities and differences in the relevance of a global community to the motivations of EFL and LOTE learners. This study fills this research gap, by focusing, as a case in point, on data collected via a questionnaire and interviews with university students of English studies in Italy and in Germany, and of students of Italian and German studies in Australia. The findings confirm the relevance of this construct to both learner groups and show that it can co-exist with integrative motives. While EFL respondents viewed the affiliation with a global community as dependent on the mastery of English, most LOTE respondents associated it with the language learning process itself and with their new positioning as second language learners and speakers in their monolingual environment. This study advances our understanding of the range of reference of international posture and contributes to reducing the gap in scholarship between EFL and LOTE learners.
