ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the reader with a general picture of influence factors on language learning through an overview of the empirical results from the conducted research. The presented results concern, first, the results from the statistical analysis of quantitative data and, second, the results from the constant comparative analysis of data from interviews and focus group discussions. The contents of following chapters (4–7) are based on results presented here in condensed form and will deepen them. The final regression model identified a series of variables that significantly predict the students’ outcomes in the LX: learner-internal characteristics (gender, migrant background, length of LX learning, attitudes toward the LX teacher and the curriculum, LX motivation, instrumentality, and self-transcendence), family environment (occupational status, mother’s LX level, LX homework) and school environment (school system, teaching style), and extracurricular learning (extra-scholastic LX activities). Regarding the perception of the participants, eight dominant categories, including several subcategories, emerged: learner-internal characteristics, family support and collaboration with schools, teacher and teaching style, teamwork and its points of friction, didactics and the search for what-works, school organization, extracurricular learning, and self-initiated encounter pedagogy, as well as sociolinguistic and sociocultural integration.
