One core principle of andragogy is that adult learners have a ‘need to know’ why learning is relevant (Knowles, Holton, and Swanson 2005, p. 64). According to Knowles and colleagues, it is the instructor's task to facilitate creating awareness for this need. In LLLL research, conveying this ‘need to know’ is something that is perhaps just as much part of participant recruitment as it is of teaching practices.
Considerations relating to one's reason to learn
Conveying the need to know during recruitment. During recruitment, one could, for example, focus on the potential proficiency gains in the language of instruction, and the usefulness of this in life outside the classroom (e.g., on holiday, watching TV or movies in the target language). However, people who sign up for a language course often already have their own motivations for wanting to learn the language (e.g., communicating with family abroad or with neighbors who speak the target language). One could consider asking about these motivations before the course, to ensure that the contents of the course play into participants reasons to learn.
Realizing that reasons to learn differ from younger learners. Older adults' motivations to learn may differ from younger learners, who may need to do so to pass a course, or other adult learners, whose promotion at work could depend on knowing a language. As such, LLLL is not purely a response to external motivators; rather, learning additional languages takes place from a point of intrinsic motivation, aimed at self-development and self-fulfillment. When there is extrinsic motivation to learn, this is often to meet certain communicative goals (e.g., be able to talk to family abroad or people on holiday), as opposed to financial incentives. However, an absence of external motivators should not be taken to mean that the language learning activity itself is primarily a fun leisure activity, as opposed to a tool to attain a personal goal.
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