MOTIVATION – ITS IMPORTANCE IN GENERAL LEARNING

AND LANGUAGE LEARNING PARTICULARLY

Motivation concepts
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation comes from rewards inherent to a task or activity itself - the enjoyment
of a puzzle or the love of playing.[1] This form of motivation has been studied by social and
educational psychologists since the early 1970s. Research has found that it is usually
associated with high educational achievement and enjoyment by students. Intrinsic
motivation has been explained by Fritz Heider's attribution theory, Bandura's work on self-
efficacy [2], and Ryan and Deci's cognitive evaluation theory. Students are likely to be
intrinsically motivated if they:

* attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can control (e.g. the amount
of effort they put in),

* believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are not
determined by luck),

* are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good grades.

Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the performer. Money is the most obvious
example, but coercion and threat of punishment are also common extrinsic motivations.

In sports, the crowd may cheer on the performer, which may motivate him or her to do well.
Trophies are also extrinsic incentives. Competition is in general extrinsic because it
encourages the performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the
activity.

Social psychological research has indicated that extrinsic rewards can lead to over
justification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic incentives sometimes can weaken the motivation as well. In one classic study done
by Green & Lepper, children who were lavishly rewarded for drawing with felt-tip pens later
showed little interest in playing with the pens again.

Self-control
The self-control of motivation is increasingly understood as a subset of emotional
intelligence; a person may be highly intelligent according to a more conservative definition
(as measured by many intelligence tests), yet unmotivated to dedicate this intelligence to
certain tasks. Yale School of Management professor Victor Vroom's "expectancy theory"
provides an account of when people will decide whether to exert self control to pursue a
particular goal.

Drives and desires can be described as a deficiency or need that activates behaviour that is
aimed at a goal or an incentive. These are thought to originate within the individual and may
not require external stimuli to encourage the behaviour. Basic drives could be sparked by
deficiencies such as hunger, which motivates a person to seek food; whereas more subtle
drives might be the desire for praise and approval, which motivates a person to behave in a
manner pleasing to others.

By contrast, the role of extrinsic rewards and stimuli can be seen in the example of training
animals by giving them treats when they perform a trick correctly. The treat motivates the
animals to perform the trick consistently, even later when the treat is removed from the
process.

Motivation is of particular interest to Educational psychologists because of the crucial role it

plays in student learning. However, the specific kind of motivation that is studied in the
specialized setting of education differs qualitatively from the more general forms of
motivation studied by psychologists in other fields.

Motivation in education can have several effects on how students learn and how they behave
towards subject matter. It can:

1. Direct behavior toward particular goals

2. Lead to increased effort and energy

3. Increase initiation of, and persistence in, activities

4. Enhance cognitive processing

5. Determine what consequences are reinforcing

6. Lead to improved performance.

Because students are not always internally motivated, they sometimes need situated
motivation, which is found in environmental conditions that the teacher creates.

There are two kinds of motivation:

* Intrinsic motivation occurs when people are internally motivated to do something because
it either brings them pleasure, they think it is important, or they feel that what they are
learning is significant.

* Extrinsic motivation comes into play when a student is compelled to do something or act
a certain way because of factors external to him or her (like money or good grades).

Motivation and How to Get Motivated

Motivation has become a popular word nowadays. There are motivational coaches and
speakers, and motivational books and articles. What is it actually, and why do you need it?

Motivation is a driving force. In order to accomplish anything, you need a driving force,
otherwise nothing will happen. A wish is not strong enough to make you take action. A wish
is a weak desire. Only a strong desire can drive forward, to act and accomplish aims and
goals.

In order to get motivated, you need to know exactly what it is that you want, to possess a
strong desire, and to be willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish your goal.

More than often there is lack of motivation or only a short-lived one. How many times have
you started enthusiastically a weight loss program, began a bodybuilding or aerobics training
program or started to learn a foreign language, only to stop after a short while? Few people
possess enough willpower and self-discipline to go through to the end with what they begin
(this is one of the reasons I have written the book "Will Power and Self Discipline").
It easier to show motivation in connection with a subject that is dear to you. If you desire
something, but you don't feel motivated enough to act, this means that the desire is not
important enough. To be motivated to take action and do something in respect to your desire,
you need to possess a really strong desire.

Motivation has much to do with the emotions and the imagination, which means that if you
want to increase it, you have to work on your feelings and imagination.

Tips to increase your motivation:

1. Think, meditate and find out whether you really want to achieve your desire, and whether
it is worth the effort and time.

2. Make your goal very clear. Writing it down will help.

3. Think often about your goal or desire.

4. Visualize your goal as already accomplished, and close your mind to contrary thoughts.

5. Read books or articles about the subject of your goal.

6. Read about people who have achieved success.

7. Think often about the benefits you will gain by achieving your goal.

8. Visualize, and think about how you would feel after achieving your goal.

9. Repeat positive affirmations such as: "I have the desire and inner strength to achieve my
goal". Repeat this affirmation often, with faith and strong feelings.

10. Start with doing something small concerning your goal. Success in small matters leads to
greater success.

Motivation is the powerful engine that moves you towards success and accomplishments in
every area.

Importance of Motivation in Learning

Motivation of student in learning

Student motivation naturally has to do with students' desire to participate in the learning
process. But it also concerns the reasons or goals that underlie their involvement or non-
involvement in academic activities. Although students may be equally motivated to perform a
task, the sources of their motivation may differ.

A student who is intrinsically motivated undertakes an activity "for its own sake, for the
enjoyment it provides, the learning it permits, or the feelings of accomplishment it evokes"
(Mark Lepper 1988). An extrinsically motivated student performs "in order to obtain some
reward or avoid some punishment external to the activity itself," such as grades, stickers, or
teacher approval (Lepper).

The term motivation to learn has a slightly different meaning. It is defined by one author as
"the meaningfulness, value, and benefits of academic tasks to the learner--regard-less of
whether or not they are intrinsically interesting" (Hermine Marshall 1987). Another notes that
motivation to learn is characterized by long-term, quality involvement in learning and
commitment to the process of learning (Carole Ames 1990).

Importance of Motivation In Language Learning

On starting to learn another language the initial difficulties you are likely to face are how to
learn vocabulary, how to put a sentence together, and how to understand what is being said to
you.
All very frustrating, but you will get there provided you can remain motivated.

Motivation is the hardest part to foreign language learning. The task can be so enormous, so
endless, that after the initial period of enthusiasm it is tempting to give up.

Learning a second language, for the majority of people, who don’t live in a foreign country,
are unable to study full-time, don’t have bilingual parents, and don’t want to move abroad
requires a lot of work over a long time period. Once you have accepted this it is much easier
to enjoy and be successful at learning another language.

Accept that it is a time consuming exercise involving interesting and not so interesting areas,
and accept that it is not easy to reach a high level of proficiency in a foreign language.
Language learning needs to be approached as you would approach any other long task There
are some very good language courses and schools to help, but no quick fixes, and as with
many things you get out what you put in.

Accepting that language learning is difficult and time consuming, what then is the best way to
approach it and remain motivated ?

Essentially you need positive feedback to encourage you to continue. Whatever you do,
especially with a long undertaking, it is difficult to remain motivated without positive
feedback of some kind. This can come from others or from yourself in the form of hurdles
overcome or small successes that make you want to continue. Motivation in relation to
language learning will more often need to come from yourself, and so it is helpful to set
achievable goals to give you the successes along the way.

The following headings contain ideas designed to help improve motivation by making
language learning more manageable.

1. Define the task

What are you trying to achieve? Are you attempting to reach near native proficiency, or do
you want to be able to order a meal ? Are you learning a language for pleasure or to help you
with your career ?

Write down your aims. Knowing your aims and what you need or want to achieve can be
used to help structure your approach to learning.

2. Have realistic expectations

It is important to have realistic expectations.

If your goal is to have a high level of conversational ability in a language, then don’t expect it
by the end of next week. Estimates vary as to the time needed to attain this but think 700
hours for a language like Spanish, and much, much more for one like Chinese.

If your goal is to learn some simple words, phrases and expressions then ten hours may be
sufficient for your purposes.

3. Decide on your initial approach to learning the language

For example, if you only need to ‘get by’ on a three day trip to Italy then one of many short
courses is likely to be sufficient, but if you need or want to achieve a high level then over the
longer term a much more structured approach is necessary.

4. Have SMART objectives

SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound. It’s a useful
acronym to help you think about objectives and how to achieve them. If you have a smart
objective, you know among other things when you have achieved it and whether you have
achieved it within the timescale that you had set.

Setting yourself realistic objectives and them achieving them is incredibly motivating.

Before deciding to learn twenty new words a week (for example), try and learn ten. Do you
have time ? Can you remember them the next day ? Do you have time to do this every week.
It is better to decide to learn ten words and succeed than try to learn twenty for a few weeks,
fail due to lack of time and then give up. Remember that language learning is a long term
goal.

The small successes will give you positive reinforcement increasing your motivation to carry
on learning the language
 Introduction to TESL (BTS 1053)

MOTIVATION – ITS IMPORTANCE IN GENERAL LEARNING

AND LANGUAGE

To : Dr. Normah
By : Syed Ahmad Afiq Hasif (023590)
Mohd Najib bin Abdul Kadir (024550)