Learning Second National Languages: A Research Report

Based on large experimental data, the book investigates the affective conditions of second national language (SNL) learning in the schools of two bilingual countries, Belgium and Finland. The settings studied are similar to intergroup situations within many countries, and between neighbouring countries, in Europe and elsewhere. The central problems are, how do the youth's perceived ethnolinguistic identity, notions of themselves as SNL learners, together with their perceptions of their own group's and the «outgroup's» vitality, and their attitudes towards outgroup members and intergroup relations, affect their motivation to learn the «other» group's language? At issue, then, are SNL learners' language attitudes, their interplay and influence on readiness for intergroup communication.