Ãðàáåëüñüêà Î.Â.
Ëüâ³âñüêèé íàö³îíàëüíèé óí³âåðñèòåò ³ìåí³ ²âàíà Ôðàíêà , Óêðà¿íà
LANGUAGE LEARNER MOTIVATION AND INTEREST
The abstract term ‘motivation’ on its own is rather difficult to define. It is easier and more useful to think in terms of the ‘motivated‘ learner : one who is willing and even eager to invest effort in learning activities and to progress. Learner motivation makes teaching and learning easier and more pleasant, as well as more productive: hence the importance of the topic for teachers .
Various studies have found that motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning. The authors of a classic study of successful language learning came to the conclusion that the most successful learners are not necessarily those to whom a language comes very easily; they are those who display certain typical characteristics, most of them clearly associated with motivation. Some of these are:
Positive task orientation . The learner is willing to tackle tasks and challenges, and has confidence in his or her success.
Ego-involvement . The learner finds it important to succeed in learning in order to maintain and promote his or her self-image.
Need for achievement. The learner has a need to achieve, to overcome difficulties and succeed in what he or she sets out to do.
High aspirations . The learner is ambitious, goes for demanding challenges, high proficiency, top grades.
Goal orientation . The learner is very aware of the goals of learning, or of specific learning activities, and directs his or her efforts towards achieving them.
Perseverance. The learner consistently invents a high level of effort in learning, and is not discouraged by setbacks or apparent lack of progress.
Tolerance of ambiguity . The learner is not disturbed or frustrated by situations involving a temporary lack of confusion; he or she can live with these patiently, in the confidence that understanding will come later.
Perhaps, most effort teachers invest in the arousing of interest. Here are some ways of arousing interest in tasks:
Clear goals . Learners should be aware of the objectives of the tasks – both language-learning and content. For example, a guessing game may have the language-learning goal of practicing question, and the content goal of guessing answers.
Varied topics and tasks . Topics and tasks should be selected carefully to as interesting as possible; but few single types can interest everyone, so there should be a wide range of different ones over time.
Visuals . It is important for learners to have something to look at that is eye-catching and relevant to the task in hand.
Tension and challenge: games. Game-like activities provide pleasurable tension and challenge through the process of attaining some ‘fun’ goal while limited by rules. The introduction of such rules ( an arbitrary time limit, for example) can add spice to almost any goal-oriented task.
Entertainment . Entertainment produces enjoyment, which in its turn adds motivation. Entertainment can be teacher-produced ( joys , stories, songs, dramatic presentation) or recorded
( movies , video clips, television documentaries).
Play-acting . Role play and simulations that use the imagination and take learners out of themselves can be excellent; though some people are inhibited and may find such activities intimidating at first.
Information gap . A particularly interesting type of task is that based on the need to understand or transmit information – finding out what is in a partner’s picture, for example. A variation on this is the opinion gap where participants exchange views on a given issue.
Personalization . Learners are more likely to be interested in tasks that have to do with them themselves: their own or each other’s opinions, tastes, experiences, suggestions.
Open-ended cues . A cue which invites a number of possible responses is usually much more stimulating than one with only one right answer: participants’ contributions are unpredictable, and are more likely to be interesting, original or humorous.
A good teacher in some way ‘pushes’ his or her students to want to do their best. It is true that motivating behavior on the part of the teacher implies increasing pleasure or enjoyment. Good teachers demand consistently high standards, giving frequent, possibly stressful, tests. These teachers do, however, in spite of strictness and uncompromising demands, apparently succeed in conveying to their students a faith in their ability to reach the desired standards, and respect for them as individuals. He or she also motivates students by making the tasks and lessons interesting, and thus, eventually the subject of study as a whole. Interest is aroused not just by careful planning of stimulating topics and tasks, but also by the teacher’s own enthusiasm and eagerness: teachers who are excited about their subject or who simply love teaching seem to communicate their own motivation to their students.
The list of references:
1. Hedge T. Power Pedagogy and Practice / T. Hedge, N. Whitney. – Oxford University Press, 1996.
2. Ur P. A Course in Language Teaching. – Cambridge University Press, 2007 .