Perceptions of and Attitudes toward French L2 Learning Opportunities On- and Off-campus Among Students not Specializing in French at Glendon

Abstract

Being one of the first student-initiated research projects about learning French as a second language at Glendon College, the present paper aims to examine Glendon students’ perceptions of and attitudes towards French L2 learning opportunities on- and off-campus. Students voluntarily participated in surveys through random selection about how they felt regarding learning French as a second language at Glendon and whether they used language learning resources inside and outside of the school environment. Key Glendon faculty members were interviewed about the FRSL program and other learning opportunities. The data collected was analyzed and used to make connections about how effectively students used language learning spaces available to them in order to become successful French language learners. Suggestions intended to aid successful French language learning were derived from the correlations made based on both quantitative and qualitative results. In general, students surveyed had false perceptions which led to negative attitudes towards learning French as a second language which influenced successful language learning.