The role of motivation among heritage and non-heritage learners of Russian

Because motivation plays a major role in the development of language proficiency, it is important to understand what motivates learners. Unfortunately, instructors of heritage languages are not often aware of the specific motivations driving their students. This article considers motivation as an ‘integrative orientation’ and as an ‘instrumental orientation’ to understand heritage speakers who enroll in Russian language courses. My research project was devised to identify the motivations of Russian language learners and to compare the motivations of heritage learners with those of nonheritage learners. With this purpose in mind two questionnaires were applied: one that comprises a section of a placement test used in heritage learner classes; the other consisting of a formal questionnaire distributed among forty learners of Russian in two North American universities. My article discusses the results of both surveys as well as their implications for classroom use and further research. The findings of this study might encourage Russian language instructors to reexamine how their own students’ motivational factors affect their own language development and how the curriculum addresses students’ needs.