Abstract
This paper presents the pilot phase of research studying motivation changes in the Czech language courses at Charles University, Prague. This phase focused on students coming from American universities to Prague for one semester within their Study Abroad.
The aim of the research was to find out whether and how motivation to learn Czech changes and what the students themselves consider the key factors playing role in the learning process. L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS, Dörnyei 2005, 2009) was used to operationalize motivation.
The results confirmed that there is a shift of motivation among these students and key factors were identified: the learning situation (teacher, course, syllabus, methodology) and affective states relating to it as well as strong desire to interact with the members of the local culture and to succeed academically. Pedagogic implications were drawn from the findings and can be applied to other teaching contexts.