Motivaţie şi demotivaţie în studiul limbii franceze la Universitatea tehnică din Cluj-Napoca
Motivation and demotivation on French language study at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca

Summary/Abstract: At the end of the university year 2013-2014 we tried to evaluate the attitude of students from a couple of faculties from the Technical University from Cluj-Napoca towards studying French after two or four semesters of learning the language. Our aim was to identify their expectations and the issues they face, whilst having to work in a rather difficult environment, mainly due to different language levels within the same group. For this purpose we used a questionnaire comprising of 10 questions and referring to the level of French, which was studied at university, the way they came to be part of a group studying French, the aspects they regard as accessible or difficult when studying French, aspects regarding the utility or lack of utility of certain topics dealt with during the seminars, the part French plays in studying at university level and in perspective in the work performance. The information gathered from 72 students from the first and second study year from the Faculty of Civil Engineering (field of study: Civil Engineering), Faculty of Machine Building (field of study: Industrial Engineering) and Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (field of study: Automobile Engineering), revealed the following aspects: • the need to preserve and improve the differential teaching system within difficult heterogeneous groups (beginners + intermediate + upper intermediate), so that the students are engaged in the activities suggested, which need to closely reflect their level of knowledge; • the need to diversify the topics suggested, according to the preferences expressed by the students, nonetheless mentioning that these need to comply with the regulations of the department and the subject description; • the need to leave out topics which do not appeal to the students and the need to adapt topics which prove either too difficult or too easy as compared to the level of knowledge of the students; • the importance of finding / drawing up modern materials, appropriate for the level of the students; • the need to establish a sustained consultation program for students meeting with difficulties; • the importance to make students aware of the advantages of internships or studying in a French speaking country. Our research starts with a review of the main types of motivation for studying a foreign language, identified by O. Challe in his book, Teaching French for Special Purposes [Enseigner le français de spécialité], (instrumental, integrative, intrinsic, extrinsic) and ends with referring to aspects identified within the same theoretical frame.

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