Methodology in Language Learning: Boost Yourself, Do something up(mostly) better

 

It is easy to see why motivation is of great importance in SLA: It provides the primary impetus to initiate L2 learning and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process; indeed, all the other factors involved in SLA presuppose motivation to some extent. Without sufficient motivation, even individuals with the most remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long-term goals, and neither are appropriate curricula and good teaching enough on their own to ensure student achievement. On the other hand, high motivation can make up for considerable deficiencies both in one’s language aptitude and learning conditions.

 

Much of what appears to be foreign-language learning aptitude may reflect a valuing process. In Belgium, those who learn Flemish as a first language are much more likely to learn a second and even a third language than are those who learn French as a first language. Why? Can anyone seriously believe that the difference is one of language-learning aptitude? Probably not. Rather, the difference is that of the perceived need for additional languages. There is a practical need for additional languages, and the languages are taught with this practical use in mind.

 

After all, motivation concerns the fundamental question of why people think and behave as they do, and we should never assume that we know the full answer. There is no question that learning a foreign language is different to learning other subjects. This is mainly because of the social nature of  such a venture. Language, after all, belongs to a person’s whole social being: it is part of one’s identity, and is used to convey this identity to other people. The learning of a foreign language involves far more than simply learning skills, or a system of rules, or a grammar; it involves an alteration in self-image, the adoption of new social and cultural behaviors and ways of being, and therefore has a significant impact on the social nature of the learner. This distinction between foreign languages and other school subjects is a very important one, and it explains partly, for example, why the theory of L2 learning and teaching has never managed to fully integrate into the broader domain of educational studies. there may be instrumental factors contributing to motivation, and we could label this combination of instrumental factors and Motivation as Instrumental Motivation”.

 

 

In operationalizing the ‘Motivation’ subcomponent describes items that are related to motivated behavior, asking, for example, about the extent of volunteering answers in class. Such behaviors, however, are associated with the consequences of being motivated in the motivation ® behavior ® outcome chain.

 

Motivational psychologists representing a cognitive perspective argued convincingly that how one thinks about one’s abilities, possibilities, potentials, limitations, and past performance, as well as various aspects of the tasks to achieve or goals to attain (e.g., values, benefits, difficulties) is a crucial aspect of motivation.

 

The more students perceived their teachers as controlling and as failing to provide instructive feedback, the less they were intrinsically motivated. Thus, perceptions of autonomy support and informative feedback from teachers enhanced the students’ feelings of intrinsic motivation. Interestingly, the perception of autonomy-supporting vs. controlling teacher behavior turned out to be a more salient factor in learners than the more general perceptions of the teacher as negative vs. congenial; in fact, structural equation modeling showed that the former factors mediated the latter. A further intriguing finding in this respect has been that the directive influence of the language teacher’s communicative/instructional style on the students’ sense of self-determination (autonomy) and enjoyment did not reach significance with students who pursued learning primarily for extrinsic (instrumental) reasons. This indicated that learners who studied a language primarily because they had to were less sensitive to this aspect of teacher influence than those who did it of their own free will.

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