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@Linguist_CIOL oCToBEr/NoVEmBEr The Linguist 17 STUDENT MOTIVATION press. I found that, for 'German', the top themes were 1) politics, 2) war and 3) other nations; for 'Germany', 1) other countries, 2) football and 3) politics; and for 'Germans', 1) war and (much less frequently) 2) other nations. When I compared these themes with learner perceptions of public associations, there were some clear overlaps. one theme in my data that was reproduced across the private (school) and public (press) domains is a view of German as a threat. Using animal metaphors, learners described German as "scary and it hunts me down", "vicious and always cruel to you" and a creature that "stabs you in the back when you think it gets easier". The verbs typically used with 'Germans' fell under the same category: 'invade', 'capture', 'attack', 'occupy', 'lose', 'fight', 'defeat', 'retreat', 'shoot', 'attack', 'surrender', 'invade', 'shell', 'evacuate', 'bomb', 'kill'. Here, the press theme of 'Germans' (the people) seems to have migrated across discourse domains to pupils' conceptualisation of German (the school subject/language). my findings suggest that there is a relationship between learner discourses in the school context and wider discourses around German, and that this affects motivation and language uptake. While continuers disagree strongly with perceived negative public discourse, those who perceive negative public attitudes are more likely to drop German. It all sounds rather depressing, but there is hope. Intervention studies have shown that learners can reconceptualise negative attitudes towards language learning and reframe them in a more positive way. But they need help with that. Teachers tell us that, in the context of impending Brexit, attitudes to language study have deteriorated even further, 5 and a discussion on the benefits, meaning and implications of language study is more crucial in the UK now than ever before. In my study, teenage language learners have shown themselves to be thoughtful and creative thinkers around language learning and what it means to them. They are acutely aware of negative public discourses, and I believe they deserve better. Let's not let them down. Notes 1 Tinsley, T & Doležal, N (2018) 'Language Trends 2018', British Council; www.britishcouncil.org/ research/language-trends-2018 2 Adams, S & Barr, C (16/8/2018) 'A-level results: Foreign languages suffer further slump'. In The Guardian 3 Weale, S (27/6/18) 'Spanish Exam Entries on Track to Surpass French in English schools'. In The Guardian 4 Krüsemann, H (2017) 'Language Learning motivation and the Discursive representation of German, the Germans, and Germany in UK School Settings and the Press', unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of reading 5 Tinsley & Doležal op. cit. asked whether learners perceived public attitudes towards German to be positive, negative or neutral. Although more people perceived neutral public attitudes, those who perceived negative attitudes were only slightly smaller in number. The percentage of learners in KS4 who believed public attitudes towards German were positive was double that of learners in KS3. Although most learners agreed with public perspectives, the older learners tended to take a slightly more critical stance. In KS3, continuers disagreed strongly with negative public discourse, whereas droppers did not. So is this related to German uptake? Apparently so: KS3 learners who perceived positive public attitudes around the term 'German' were more likely to continue with the subject, whereas those who perceived negative attitudes were more likely to drop it. IMPACT ON UPTAKE So far, I had been looking at perceptions of public attitudes, rather than actual public attitudes, and this is where the press comes in. The newspaper articles I collected formed the basis of a linguistic corpus: a large, digital collection of text, which can act as a standard reference of typical language patterns. The purpose was to provide a snapshot of discourses around German in wider circulation. With the help of a corpus analysis tool, I was able to identify the contexts in which my search words were typically used in the UK VIEWS OF GERMANY There is a gap between the press portrayal (focusing on war, international relations, politics and football) and students' experiences (more likely to cover culture and tourism). Clockwise from above: German football fans; Chancellor Angela Merkel; German soldiers in a WWII reenactment; a traditional Christmas market; and Neuschwanstein Castle ImAGES © SHUTTErSToCK