motivation动机论文

Motivation in Second Language Learning and English Teaching

Abstract

It is believed that individual learner variables influence learning outcomes. The variables have been categorized into cognitive variables, affective variables and personality variables. Of affective variables, motivation has been thought to play a most important role in L2 learning. Therefore, a further study o f motivation can really help a lot in English teaching. The article states the information of motivation and its influence on English language teaching.

Key words: motivation; second language learning; English teaching

From the second half of the twentieth century on, researchers have begun to analyze child language learning systematically. They have attempted to discover the nature of the psycholinguistic process that enables every human being to gain great control of an exceedingly complex system of communication.

Learning outcomes may be influenced by individual learner variables. The motivation of learning plays very important role in second language learning. A language teacher should get the intimate knowledge about the categories of motivation, which will help to conduct a well arranged language teaching.

1. Second Language Learning

As the global society in which we live flows more easily across state borders, our people, cultures, companies, governments, and institutions from around the world have more contact. Borders are blurred and the importance of bi-and multi-lingualism becomes necessary to sustain this constant contact. As a result of this increase in language learning and teaching, much research has been devoted to exploring ways in which a diverse set of factors affects learning and acquisition. The significance of these variables lies in the impact on how we teach second languages. In a where barriers to inter-cultural and inter - lingual interaction are being torn down, this research will have a great impact on its future. Our world has become more globle

leaving fewer realms to exist in state boundaries and expanding the number of activities involving different cultures and languages. Migration, inter-language marriages, bilingual education, multi-national corporations and international organizations are just a few phenomena on the rise that require bilingual or multi-lingual participants. This trend has in turn spawned research into two overlapping areas: initial language acquisition in young children and that on acquisition of second language.

The most important factor affecting initial language acquisition is neurological developments in the brain. Children can also have some characteristics that aid in rapid acquisition. They are unselfconscious, learn clear positive advantages associated with successful communication, and have no other language to fall back on. These types of advantages play a role in how fast and well children acquire language.

In second language acquisition and learning the similar factors determine whether or not the language is acquired or learned at all. While initial language acquisition relies mainly on neurological development over time, second language acquisition and learning rely on age only in associated characteristics and not in actual brain structure. More relevant to second language learning are four other factors: motivation, opportunity, environment, and personality. In this paper, I will turn to motivation in detail.

2. Concept of motivation

The analysis of social context makes it possible to focus on the individual learner and ask how social effects are carried into language learning. The first connection is in the development of motivation. According to Carroll, the more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she will spend learning an aspect of a second language. To be more specific about motivation, three questions arise: Where does motivation come from? Is there one kind of motivation, or more? What parts of second language learning does motivation (of what kind) influence? In one of the earliest statements on motivation in second language learning, Gardner and Lambert suggested that individuals’motivation to learn a second language is controlled by his attitudes towards the other group in particular and by his orientation to the learning task itself.

Of all school subjects, language learning is the one where attitude is specially relevant: Gardner points out that:

Language courses are different from other curriculum topics. They require that the individual incorporates elements from another culture. As a consequence, reactions to the other culture become important considerations. Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive or desire that moves one to a particular action. Some researchers hold that certain motivational anthropological constants do exist. These include:

1. need for exploration ( curiosity)

2. need for manipulating or controlling the environment

3. need for activity

4. need for stimulation

5. need for knowledge

6. need for ego-enhancement

Motivation is a complex structure, defined by three main components: desire to achieve a goal, effort extended in this direction, and satisfaction with the task.

3. Types of Motivation

Motivation in L 2 learning has chiefly been used to refer to the long-term fairly stable attitudes in the students’ minds. Gardner and Lambert have introduced two types of favorable motivation. A person’s motivation behind learning a second language and the views he holds regarding the L 2- speaking community both come into play in speed of SLA and degree of proficiency achieved.

Motivation is differentiated a long a continuum integrative at one end and instrumental at another. The more that a student admires the target culture reads its literature, visits it on holiday, looks for opportunities to practice the language, and so on the more successful the student will be in the L2 classroom. Motivation has been identified as the learners’orientation with regard to the goal of learning a second language. It is thought that students who are most successful when learning a target language are those who like the people that speak the language, admire the culture and have a desire to become familiar with or even integrate into the society in which

the language is used. T his form of motivation is known integrative motivation. When some one becomes a resident in a new community that uses the target language in its social interact ions, integrative motivation is a key component in assisting the learner to develop some level of proficiency in the language. It is also theorized that integrative motivation typically underlies successful acquisition of a wide range of registers and a native like pronunciation.

In contrast to integrative motivation is the form of motivation referred to as instrumental motivation. Instrumental motivation means learning the language for an ulterior motive unrelated to its use by native speakers. This is generally characterized by the desire to obtain some thing practical or concrete from the study of a second language. With instrumental motivation the purpose of language acquisition is more utilitarian. Instrumental motivation is often characteristic of second language acquisition, where little or no social integration of the learner into a community using the target language takes p lace, or in some instances is even desired.

While both integrative and instrumental motivation are essential elements of success, it is integrative motivation which has been found to sustain long term success when learning a second language. In some of the early research conducted by Gardner and Lambert integrative motivation was viewed as being of more importance in a formal learning environment than instrumental motivation. In later studies, integrative motivation has continued to be emphasized, although now the importance of instrumental motivation is also stressed. However, it is important to note that instrumental motivation has only been acknowledged as a significant factor in some research, whereas integrative motivation is continually linked to successful second language acquisition. It has been found that generally students select instrumental reasons more frequently than integrative reasons for the study of language. Those who do support an integrative approach to language study are usually more highly motivated and overall more successful in language learning. One area where instrumental motivation can prove to be successful is in the situation where the learner is provided with an opportunity to use the target language and therefore, no chance to interact with members of the target group. Brown makes the point that both

integrative and instrumental motivations are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Learners rarely select one form of motivation when learning a second language, but rather a combination of both orientations. Motivation is an important factor in L 2 achievement. For this reason it is important to identify both the type and combination of motivation that assists in the successful acquisition of a second language. At the same time it is necessary to view motivation as one of a number of variables in an intricate model of interrelated individual and situational factors which are unique to each language learner.

According to Dulayetal, social-group-identification motivation is another branch o f motivation. It is similar to the integrative motivation, but goes beyond it. Learners who have social- group-identifcation motivation would want to become members of the target language community and at the same time in tend to assimilate fully into the host society or community by to tally giving up their own identity, culture and language. This motivation is particularly applicable to immigrants who desire to settle down in a foreign country. Brown (1981) identifies three types of motivation: global motivation, situational motivation and task motivation. And then Crookes and Schmidt (1989) made a division between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. And other different researchers identified different types of motivation from different point of view, here I will not cover but the integrative and instrumental motivation only.

4. Motivation and English teaching

How people learn and what is learning has been the focus of educators, theorists, researchers and others for a long time. Understanding the learner and how learning takes place for that individual is the key to know how to teach that individual we know motivation has greatly influenced a learners SLA, and it is absolutely true that some L2 learners do better than others because they are better motivated. The usual meaning of motivation for the teacher is probably the interest that something generates in the students. L2 motivations should not be considered as a forced choice between the integrative and the instrumental.

Both types are important. A student might learn a L2 well with an integrative

motivation or with an instrumental one, or indeed with both, for one does no t rule out the other, or with other motivations. Nevertheless students will find it difficult to learn a second language in the classroom if they have neither instrumental nor integrative motivation, as is probably often the case in school language teaching.

School children have no particular contact with the foreign culture and no particular interest in it, nor do their job prospects depend on it. A problem a teacher face is that motivations for L2 learning are deep rooted in the students’ minds and in their cultural backgrounds. The general issue is how the students’ cu ltural background fits the background projected by the L 2 culture. Successful L2 learning takes place in add it live situation; learners who see the L2 as diminishing themselves will not succeed. This relates directly to many immigrant or multi-ethnic situations; a group that feels in danger of losing its identity by learning a second language does not learn the L2 well. In an ideal teachers world, students would enter the classrooms admiring the target culture and language, wanting to get something out of the L2 learning for themselves, and thirsting for knowledge. In practice teachers have to be aware of the reservations and preconceptions o f their students. What they think of the teacher, and what they think of the course, heavily affects their success. This is what teachers can influence rather than the learners more deep-seated motivations. Motivation also goes in both directions.

High motivation is one factor that causes successful learning; successful learning, however, may cause high motivation. The latter process of creating successful learning which can spur high motivation may be under the teachers’ control, if not the former. The choice of teaching materials and the information content of the lesson, for example, should correspond to the motivations of the students.

In order to make the language learning process a more motivating experience instructors need to put a great deal of thoughts into developing programs which maintain student interest and have obtainable short term goals. At university level this may include, any number of foreign exchange program s with other universities, overseas home stay programs, or any other activities which may help motivate students to improve their target language proficiency. For the foreign language teacher

this may result in a certain level of frustration due to the general lack of interest and commitment by some students. Teachers need to create interesting lessons in which the students, attention is gained. This can sometimes be accomplished by the use of teaching strategies which are not often called upon by other teachers in main stream subject areas. Encouraging students to overcome more active participants in a lesson can sometimes assist them to see a purpose for improving their communication skills in the target language. Successful communication using the target language should result in students feeling some sense o f accomplishment. Research in the area suggests L2 achievement strongly affects learner motivation.

The use of an interesting text can also help to increase the motivation level of students in the classroom. It is important for the instructor to take advantage of such discussion topics and help students to realize that, even though they may see no need to become proficient in a second language, the study of another language and culture can only enhance their perception and understanding of other culture. As the study of the process o f language learning and teaching, people attach much more attention to the factors influencing this. The integrative motivation and the instrumental motivation both play an indispensable part in L2 learning. Language learners and teachers should take advantage the positive role of the motivation to attaint the end that is to learn and teach L2 efficiently. No matter what the underlying motivation to study a second language, what cannot be disputed is the fact that motivation is an important variable when examining successful second language acquisition. It cannot be denied that there are some more or less problems in our language learning and teaching system, and change may be slow to the education system, L 2 learners and teachers should overcome the present difficulties to achieve higher level of proficiency.

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