Language
Learning Motivation:
The intent of this address is to discuss
the roles of the student, the teacher and the language researcher in
understanding the motivation to learn another language. In order to guide this
discussion, attention is directed toward the socio-educational model of second
language acquisition. Although this model considers the motivation to learn
another language from the point of view of the student, it is clear that other
contributors include the teacher as well as the student’s and the teacher’s
backgrounds. The objective of the language researcher is to code the process
and investigate it in ways that will help to more fully understand it.
One
feature of the socio-educational model is the set of variables it has
identified and the means of assessing them so that specific hypotheses about
the nature and influence of motivation in second language learning can be
evaluated. Some general observations about research findings that have been
obtained are made, and attention is directed toward one study that considers
the stability of motivational variables. The issue of motivational stability is
currently of interest in the literature, and concerns the question of whether
motivation is stable or fluid. Discussion of some of the findings from this
study focuses on the distinction between motivation and motivating, and on the
implications this could have for the language teacher and the language
researcher.
There is considerable interest today in
the notion of motivation to learn a second or foreign language, but it wasn’t
always this way. In 1956 it was generally agreed that learning another language
involved intelligence and verbal ability. Concepts like attitudes, motivation
and anxiety were not considered to be important at all. Today, much of this has
changed, and one sometimes gets the impression that affective variables are
considered to be the only important ones.
It is clear, however, that learning a
second language is a difficult time-consuming process. To date, research has focussed on individual
difference characteristics of the student such as attitudes and motivation,
language anxiety, self-confidence, field independence, personality variables
(e.g., need achievement, risk-taking, empathy and the like), intelligence,
language aptitude, and language learning strategies, but other variables and
other classes of variables might well be considered viable candidates.
Number
of scientists focused on the motivation because they believe that most of the
learning factors are depends on this. Thus, for example, language learning
strategies probably will not be used if the individual is not motivated to
learn the language, and/or there is little or no reason to take risks using the
language if there is little intention to learn it, etc. Thus motivation is a
central element along with language aptitude in determining success in learning
another language in the classroom setting.
When
focusing attention on motivation in second language acquisition it is useful to
consider it from three perspectives, that of the student, the teacher, and the
researcher, however we check the first two categories, the teacher and the
students’ duties. What is motivational or motivating to the teacher may not be
to the student.