The Role of Motivation in Second Language Learning (SLL)

This post is to re-publish my old writing which was previously published here. The old blog was hacked so I moved here :)

As what people might think, being catwalk models must be beautiful and ‘perfect’. A model must be able to walk on stage as beautiful as the music that echoes. However, Amanda Bauty can prove that what those people think is not thoroughly correct. Amanda, a professional Indonesian model, does not have to be that ‘perfect’ to be a model; she is, in fact, deaf since she was born. What she holds since the very beginning of her career is a high motivation to reach her dream. The motivation comes from herself and the environment around her, such as from her mother and friends. Her motivation eventually helps her to be the first, and might be the only one, deaf professional model in Indonesia. This shows that motivation can help people to reach something, even to change the thing which seems impossible to be possible. Finally, in language learning, the question will be “Can motivation play the same role, as the case above, in the SLL?”

Since motivation works in reaching something: the dream, the hypothesis for the above question is indeed motivation works in the SLL. This can be so since mastering second language is also something that people want to reach. Thus, the analogy is that when motivation works in reaching something and the SLL belongs to that something, motivation works in the SLL.

The motivation can be either internal or external ones. The earlier one, or self-motivation, comes from the individual who wants to reach the thing which, in this case, is the SLL. Self-motivation is composed by three factors: desire which is about how much the individual wants to master language through the SLL, effort which is the allocated time to do the SLL, and affect which includes the emotional attitude of the individual towards the achievement of the SLL (Gardner in Norris-Holt: 2001). The language learning process of an individual who has no self-motivation and an individual who has self-motivation, of course, is different. The one with no self-motivation learns language exactly as what is given without trying to improve it in self-effort. The example is that the person only learns languages at school when he has the lessons or at home when he gets assignments related to languages. Even sometimes, people with no self-motivation attend the lesson to only fulfill the presence and give little attention to what the lesson is about. Finally, when there is neither language lesson nor assignments, there are no activities related to language done.

Meanwhile, the one who has self-motivation is always motivated to learn language. This can be so since the individual has already had desire, which is a part of self-motivation, to master the language. However, the triggering factors to have mastering-languages as the desire, or goal, can be various, depending on the person. It can be that the person wants to work and live abroad, wants to be able to communicate with foreign people, wants to look cool of being able to speak in many languages, etc. After that, the person does the effort to reach that goal by allocating times for language. The amount of time spent in language lesson and assignment alone is not enough. Thus, the person allocates more time in language learning though it does not have to be through formal learning. With the motivation, the more time allocated, the better the person is. From this point, the having-self-motivation person is one step ahead than the one with no self-motivation. Besides, the person also gets the affect, a part of self-motivation which is a kind of incentive to reach the goal, of everything done. When the person makes a progress in language learned, compliment or, at least, feeling of pride comes which then motivates him to learn more and makes more progress. This is, of course, different from those who have no affect of either learning language or making progress in the learning. Finally, it can be clearly seen that self-motivation really plays role in the SLL.

Not only self-motivation (the internal one), there is also the external motivation. This comes from the surroundings such as parents, family, friends, or the environment of the SLL. This external motivation is useful in the SLL as this completes self-motivation in helping or fastening the learning. Self-motivation alone is not enough without the help of the surroundings. The example is when a child really wants to be a dancer, but the parents do not want that and never let the child to either practice or think about dancing. The result is guessable: though the child is self-motivated to be a dancer but is not supported, even is constrained, by the external motivation, the kid will get some difficulties to be good at dancing. On the other hand, the same thing happens. When the surroundings really motivate the child to be good at dancing, but the child alone is not self-motivated to be a dancer, the process still faces problem. Those two conditions are lame somehow.

Meanwhile, the ideal condition is the one which can involve the role of both self-motivation and the external one. When the kid is supported by the parents to go on dance-practicing, gets a good dance-trainer, and gets a good-atmosphere of dance-practicing, it is like ‘a piece of cake’ to be a good dancer. This analogy also works in SLL. Motivating parents and friends, good teachers of language, and good atmosphere of the SLL process, combined with self-motivation, are good formula in helping to reach the success of SLL.

In conclusion, as the answer of the question at the beginning of this essay and the proof of the hypothesis, motivation plays a role in SLL. Motivation, in this case, can be either internal or external. The former is from the individual itself which can be called as self-motivation. Meanwhile, the external one comes from anything outside the individual such as parents, friends, and environment. Those two kinds of motivation work compatibly each other. When one of them is absent from accompanying the SLL, the achieved result will not be as good as when the two kinds are present. This, at the end, proves that motivation, in fact, is of importance in the SLL.

References

Liuolien?, A., and R. Meti?nien?. 2006. “Second Language Learning Motivation” http://www.coactivity.vgtu.lt/upload/filosof_zurn/a_liuoliene_metiuniene_filologija_nr2.pdf retrieved on 4 January 2010.

Norris-Holt, J. 2001. “Motivation as a Contributing Factor in Second Language Acquisition” / The internet TESL Journal. http://iteslj.org/Articles/Norris-Motivation.html retrieved on 4 January 2010.

Tokuhama-Espinosa, T. 2001. Raising Multilingual Children: Foreign Language Acquisition and Children. London: Bergin and Garvey.

Yeok-Hwa, K. 2000. “Motivation and Transfer in Language Learning” / Educational Resources Information Center.
http://www.kidsource.com/education/motivation.lang.learn.html retrieved on 4 January 2010.