"I imagine myself in the future speaking German". What motivates university students in Australia to learn German over time?

German has been at the centre of several recent studies on language learning motivation in Australia (e.g. D'Orazzi 2020a; Schmidt 2014) and elsewhere (e.g. Ammon 2020; Busse 2013; Riemer 2011). This study focuses on exploring motivation and changes in its component parts that students may experience when learning German at beginner level over two semesters at Australian universities. It does so by means of a three-dimensional (micro-meso-macro) framework proposed by D'Orazzi (2020a) who draws upon similar three-level models of analysis designed by the Douglas Fir Group (2016), Gayton (2018) and Gruba et al. (2016). Quantitative and qualitative methods are utilised to analyse data collected over time by means of two online questionnaires and two rounds of interviews. This longitudinal approach allows us to trace the nature and extent of changes in students' motivation over one year of studies and compare our outcomes with previous research on motivation in learning German at Australian universities (e.g. Schmidt 2011). The complex interconnection of motivational components shared by research participants allows to offer an updated overview of university students' understanding and experience of German learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]