Motivation & personality & their impact on success in FLL
1. Major sources & kinds of motivation.
w Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
transcendence
é
self-actualisation
é
aesthetics
é
need to know & understand
é
esteem needs
é
belongingness & love
é
safety
é
physiological needs
MOTIVATION à internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action & achieve a goal which is sufficiently attractive for the individual concerned (Harmer)
motivation involves a cluster of factors that energise behaviour & give it
direction
a 4 hypotheses about the nature of motivation in S/FLL context:
1. The Intrinsic Hypothesis.
à has to do with the learning activity itself: it involves the arousal and maintenance of curiosity and can ebb and flow as a result of such factors as learners’ particular interests & the extent to which they feel personally involved in learning activities
2. The Resultative Hypothesis.
à suggests that previous successful learning positively affects the learner’s motivation
à learners who have experienced reward are encouraged to work hard: those who have not been successful get discouraged
à does motivation produce successful learning or is it successful learning that enhances moti- vation? or is it a combination of both?
3. The Internal Cause Hypothesis.
à holds that individuals bring to a given situation a certain quality of motivation depending on
their goals in learning
à there are some internal motives which affect a learner’s interest in the learning process
4. The Carrot & Stick Hypothesis.
à stresses the influence of external factors on the language learner’s motivation: rewards as
well as punishment can affect the learner’s attitude
à rewards give better effects
instrumental motivation vs. integrative motivation
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an intention to learn a language that is stimulated by some utilitarian purposes (e.g. a
desire to gain economic advantages, a good grade)
ê
a perspective adopted is more self-oriented in the sense that a person prepares to learn a new code to derive benefits of a non-personal sort
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willingness & / or desire on the part of the learner to be similar to representative members of the TL
community, to become a part of this community &
to understand the TL culture & participate in it
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à either type can have very positive effects on learning
intrinsic motivation Vs. extrinsic motivation
15.04.2009
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in these learners their natural curiosity &
interest in LL energise their effort
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these learners are motivated by a desire to get a
reward or avoid punishment, so the focus comes form an external source
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likely to be related to long-term results
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2. Some personality traits desirable in the FL learner.
w even if there is no clear evidence that personality has direct influence on the learner’s success in S/FLL, variations in performance aren’t entirely the question of cognitive factors & motivation, but depend on the personal attributes that can enhance or inhibit learning
w influential personality traits
self-esteem
o high self-esteem: willing riskers, not afraid of making mistakes
o positive self-image
empathy
o ability to put oneself into other people’s shoes
o ability to identify with native speakers of the TL
tolerance of ambiguity
o learners don’t insist on establishing one-to-one correspondence between the mother tongue & target language
introversion / extroversion
o introversion – attitude which is characterised by self-directed ego enhancement (they don’t need others to tell them how good they are)
o extroversion – the extent to which a person has a deep-seated need to receive ego- enhancement & a sense of wholeness from other people
w good language learners:
o able to respond to the group dynamics of the learning situation
o seek out all opportunities to use TL
o make maximum use of the opportunities to practice L2
o supplement the learning deriving from the direct contact with speakers of TL with
learning derived from the use of study techniques
o adolescents / adults rather than young children
o possess sufficient analytic skills to perceive, categorise & store linguistic features of L2
& also to monitor errors
o possess a strong reason for learning L2 & develop a strong task motivation
o be prepared to experiment by taking risks
o be capable of adopting to difficult learning conditions
