Topic: The goal of the current study is to spot the effects of psychological and social factors on second language – German and Italian – acquisition in children at Primary School.

Research question: Which psychological and social factors can be observed in young second language learners in a border region?

Objective: The objective is to identify those effects for a reflection on separated school systems in multilingual regions. Further this work should give inputs for pedagogical and didactical approaches to second language acquisition.

Theoretical framework: Language learners have to learn to use a language for communication with people around the world. Most EU students learn two foreign languages. In teaching a second/foreign language didactical aspects are essential, but are those enough? What's about motivation and social factors? Why some students are awfully good and other students fail even if they get the same language inputs and even if they have the same prior knowledge? In education motivation plays a crucial role in the performance of students (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Motivation is defined as the learner's orientation with regard to the goal of learning a second language. Gardner (1982), in his socio-educational model, identified a number of factors which are interrelated when learning a second language. Gardner's model includes the social and cultural milieu, individual learner differences, the setting or context in which learning takes place and the linguistic outcomes. Falk (1978) identified an integrative motivation, students are successful when learning a second/foreign language if they admire the culture and the people that speak the language. On the other side we have a instrumental motivation, the desire to obtain something practical, e.g. applying for a job, meeting the requirements for school or university graduation (Hudson, 2000). Researches (Gardner & Lambert, 1959; Abel, Vettori & Wisniewski, 2012) demonstrate the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and the learner's identity in a second/foreign language acquisition mainly for second and higher education. Extrinsic motivation is an effect from social factors. Communication is a form of social interaction and the role of social factors on language acquisition, such as the sociocultural background, and usage as well as attitudes influenced by parents' and peers' attitudes, which forms a perception of oneself and others, can and should not be ignored (Brown, 2007). Schumann (in Ellis, 2008) proposes the acculturation model in which learners' rate of development and ultimate level of language achievement is a function of the social distance and the psychological distance between learners and the second-language community.

What's about children's experiences in multilingual contexts? The aim of the present study is to evaluate Primary School Children's intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for second language acquisition in an Italian-German context in South Tyrol – Italy – where German and Italian citizens as well as other linguistic minorities live in the same border region – with different language school systems. The presence of different linguistic groups and social dynamics returns extremely interesting for a social and motivational evaluation of the second language acquisition. 

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