Abstract (eng)
This master's thesis examines the factors that influence students' motivation to choose Russian as a compulsory elective subject. In the theoretical part of the thesis, various motivation theories and models, as well as the underlying motives, are discussed based on secondary literature. A further chapter is dedicated to the history of Russian language teaching in Germany and Austria, with a focus on developments in Austria after 1945. Additionally, an overview of student numbers at the University of Vienna's Slavic Studies department from 2007 to 2019 is provided, which shows a significant decline in student numbers. Before the empirical part of the work, a short chapter gives an overview of the compulsory elective subjects at GRG16, including the enrolment figures for Russian since the 2021/2022 school year. The study's results show that the decision to choose Russian is mainly influenced by personal interests and the desire for linguistic diversity in the school environment, while career considerations and external social influences from friends and family play a lesser role.