This study explores the motivation of English undergraduates to study German. In a context focused approach the history of German language learning in England is reviewed first. The historical findings in combination with a review of L2 motivation research lead to the empirical work. Inspired by Ushioda’s (2009) person-in-context relational view of motivation I have conducted cross-sectional qualitative interview research with groups of British undergraduates who study German at two different English universities. The data collected gives an insight into language learning motivation in general and shows what is specific to Anglophone learners and to German language learning. Through qualitative data analysis relating to different language learning motivation models I test the relevance of the concepts of integrativeness, instrumental orientation and the L2 motivational self system, to the learning of a high status ‘niche’ language which is often a third language for Anglophone students.

This thesis investigates Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in German undergraduate programmes in the UK. At its core is a study of how one German department integrates the teaching of language and content in its undergraduate programmes and how instructors and students experience this approach. This micro-context is embedded in the wider macro-context of UK Higher Education and subject to outside forces - be they political, economic, socio-cultural - whose effects will manifest in more or less obvious ways. Data was collected via an online survey of Heads of German at British universities to determine the status quo of CLIL in UK Higher Education and to investigate how certain institutional parameters determine the introduction of CLIL in Higher Education. This project employs a mixed-method case study approach and is based on student questionnaires and semi-structured interview with German teaching staff. The study brings to light a number of significant aspects. For example, contrary to popular belief, content provision in the L2 is rather common at British universities, which is currently not reflected in the research. Student data indicates that German students perceive clear advantages in the university’s approach to CLIL. They consider German-taught content classes challenging yet beneficial for their language development. Staff interviews have yielded intriguing information about perceived advantages and disadvantages of CLIL, about its implications for classroom practice, and about instructors’ attitude towards teacher training, which echo findings from similar investigations in European contexts. Finally, the results of the macro-analysis and the case study are compared and contrasted with findings from European research on ICLHE/CLIL to determine differences and similarities with the British context, a set of recommendations is made regarding CLIL practice at the case study institution, and some implications these indings may have for the future of CLIL in British higher education are discussed.

This longitudinal mixed methods study traces the request development of eight UK based students learning German in Germany and Austria. Although language socialisation was used as an underlying contextual framework, the main focus was on the development of politeness as operationalised in requests, and the factors which may have influenced this development such as the establishment of an L2 identity and membership in communities of practice (CofPs). Five participants were English native speakers, two had grown up bilingually, one speaking Croatian and English and the other Italian and Twi, and one was a French native speaker. The requests were primarily elicited in semi-structured role plays carried out with German native speakers, yet the participants were also asked to record authentic interactions in service encounter scenarios, expected to lead to the utterance of requests. The role play data, which amount to 144 role plays, were collected before, during and after the students’ stay abroad. In-sojourn, the participants were also asked to record authentic exchanges, three of which were used in the present study. In addition, the students were also interviewed pre-in-and post-sojourn (24 interviews) and were asked to fill in an online background questionnaire before going abroad and a language engagement questionnaire while they were abroad. The role plays were coded based on the CCSARP coding scheme to determine the degree of directness and of internal and external mitigation in learner requests. The authentic data were analysed with Conversation Analysis. The data show a shift towards more directness, i.e. less internal and more external mitigation in-sojourn, thus indicating an adaptation to target community specific language behaviour. However, the degree of adaptation varied partly in line with participants’ degree of awareness of differences in linguistic politeness and identification with German society, and partly in line with the extent of their engagement with local CofPs. The variables which mostly influenced the change between pre-and in-sojourn request realisations, were the awareness of differences in linguistic politeness and the successful establishment of an L2 identity. Interaction with the host-community, which did not have a noticeable influence on the general pre- to in-sojourn change data, and awareness of difference in linguistic politeness, did however impact the change in pre- to in-sojourn request variation. The CA analysis of the authentic exchanges and the corresponding role plays both show the same preference structure for requests, thus providing researchers in the field with important new validation for role play methodology.