Education of the republic of uzbekistan

1.2 Motivation among language learners
The reasons for learning a second language can be endless but the secret to success is rooted in the science of motivation. Second language professionals, after explaining what we do for a living, are inevitably asked "What's the fastest/best/most foolproof method for learning a language?" Some of us like to answer: language by partner, meaning, go to the country and fall in love with someone who speaks only the language you want to learn and not yours. In academic terms, what we are recommending is that people make the most of something that is crucial for language learning – motivation.
Most people find that learning another language after childhood is hard. Although not everyone who is motivated to learn manages to succeed, most people who do achieve a high level of success also turn out to be very strongly motivated.
Researchers who study the relationship between language learning and motivation explain that some learners are "intrinsically" motivated. These learners might want to learn a language to a higher level so that they can understand their grandparents who live in another country and are getting older. Or they might want to teach their children a second language because they want them to have the cognitive and social advantages of being bilingual, people like Guardian writer Louise Tickle, whose blog illustrates her efforts as an intrinsically motivated parent.
"Extrinsic" motivation, in turn, stems from outside sources, such as a student needing to pass a test in order to satisfy a language requirement. In practice, of course, people tend to have a variety of reasons, both intrinsic and extrinsic, for why they want to learn, and different aspects motivate them at different times.
Professors Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert conducted pioneering work in studying motivation; they point out the importance of other qualities, such as aptitude. Based on their research in officially bilingual Canada, they noted that some learners are integratively motivated to learn a language, meaning they feel an affinity for it, they want to get to know people who speak that language, and they are often also interested in the culture associated with the language. This is similar to intrinsic motivation.
Instrumental motivation, on the other hand, kicks in where people primarily want to learn a language for practical reasons, such as a salary bonus or getting into university, similar to extrinsic motivation. It has been shown to be less powerful in language learning success.
Of course, people's motivation can change. Professor Zoltán Dörnyei from Nottingham University has pointed out that "every different psychological perspective on human behaviour is associated with a different theory of motivation". His own model is known as the "L2 motivational self system", and it focuses on learners' abilities to envision an ideal future for themselves as positive, competent and successful second language speakers.
Dörnyei's model also recognises that motivation is dynamic rather than static. So, motivation fluctuates as it is impacted by various factors in real time, moment to moment. A learner's motivation levels can go up or down depending on how motivated, or interested, or involved their conversational partners are (these might be native speakers, or fellow learners and their instructors in classrooms). In other words, motivation can be contagious.
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It can also be influenced by the task that learners are undertaking and how interesting and engaging it is. Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and author of several bestselling books, says that "each person's life is lived as a series of conversations". When asked how this applies to learning language, Tannen notes that "wanting to have certain kind of conversations, with people one knows or wants to know, can be a huge motivator in learning a new language". She follows this up with a personal example. Although her first husband, who was Greek, spoke English fluently, Tannen had to learn Greek in order to communicate with his mother, a woman she came to love deeply.
Dörnyei and his colleagues have recently carried out classroom research, finding that learners who can construct ideal self-images as successful second language speakers are better able to reach their goals. They need to have a clear roadmap of tasks and strategies to follow in order to do this, and Dörnyei makes the analogy between teaching a language and creating a training plan for an Olympic athlete. Like sports coaches, he explains, "instructors should take the perspective of trainers and cheerleaders, helping learners to imagine themselves in their ideal L2 personae and thus leverage their motivation to better their learning outcomes".
What about learners who are strongly motivated to learn a language but still don't succeed? Some of us just don't have strong aptitude for language learning. We might be good at other things, such as science, art, music or sports. Researchers traditionally look at the relationships among different kinds of aptitude and language learning outcomes. More recent approaches have started to study exceptionally successful second language learners – the rare few who end up sounding just like native speakers – to understand their particular cognitive skills.
It seems that at least three things are important for language learning success. These are your working memory, which can be thought of as how you hold a phone number in your head before you write it down, your associative memory, or how well you connect new and known information, and how strong your mechanisms are for implicit learning, which can be seen as the ability to figure out patterns in information. If you have these aptitude skills, along with high levels of various types of motivation, you're most likely to succeed, especially if you have access to instruction that has been tailored to match your abilities and interests.
However, what about those of us who aren't lucky enough to have this constellation of aptitude and motivation, or access to good instruction? As the evolutionary psychologist, linguist and bestselling science author Steven Pinker has pointed out in these pages "our behaviours are a result of neurophysiological activity in the brain. There is no reason to believe there is any magic going on." The idea of people being hard wired for second language learning is fascinating and, perhaps, appealing in that it might be used to get some of us off the hook if our language learning journey is less than successful. It is undeniable that motivation plays a key role in second or foreign language learning. Extensive research confirms that motivation becomes one of the determining factors of second or foreign language learning success (Bradford, 2007; Dörnyei, 1998; Engin, 2009). However, motivation in learning a second or foreign language is not as simple as we think since motivation is complex and has a ‘multifaceted nature’ (Dörnyei, 1998 p.118). Furthermore, motivation is dynamic, which means that there are ups and downs during the process of language learning, as Dornyei (2001) conceptualized in the three phases of his process-oriented motivational model.
I would like to offer my own language learning experience as an example. I experienced moments when I had very high motivation in learning English but I also had bad experiences when I was reluctant to learn English and had no self-confidence to actualize my motivation. In learning English, I have some intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as well as motivating and demotivating factors. In this article, I would argue that motivation is crucial in my foreign language learning and that if learners face some demotivating factors, they need to deal with them before they cause problems.
Firstly, I have a clear instrumental motivation in learning English as a foreign language. This motivation refers to a pragmatic orientation or utilitarian orientation (Bradford, 2007; Gardner & Lambert, 1972). I want to learn English since I believe that English is the key to success in the future. When I was in junior high school my sister told me that If I could master English, I would be able to get a good job and a successful career.
In addition to that, I was lucky to have a very good English teacher at a junior high school who was very friendly and very enthusiastic. He often triggered the students’ motivation levels by giving points or presents when we were able to answer the question of the quiz at the beginning of the class activity. Secondly, my motivation in learning English changed to be integrative motivation, meaning the desire to be able to interact or become part of the community where English is spoken (Gardner & Lambert, 1972).
In the first semester of my undergraduate study, I dreamt of being able to go and study abroad. This orientation was partly influenced by my seniors who had been to the USA to take a short course. To achieve the dream, I worked hard to learn English concentrating in particular on how I could get a good TOEFL score since the study program required it. Every day I learned English independently. I went to the library and read a TOEFL preparation book. I also practiced writing English essays. I studied very hard since I had high motivation to go abroad and study English and my dream finally came true. In the fifth semester, I had an opportunity to go to the USA to Colorado State University to take a short course for eight weeks. Both instrumental and integrative motivation become a persistent stepping stone to arousing my motivation to learn English.
My motivation for earning English comes from my intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation as explained by Vallerand et al (1989, cited in Dörnyei, 1998) comes from many sources such as knowledge, accomplishment and stimulation. For me, the accomplishment is the main trigger of my intrinsic motivation. Whenever I had difficulties in learning English, for example, in understanding an English passage, I would struggle until I had overcome the problem. Whenever I could accomplish a task well, it increased my motivation and made me want to solve another task. Another example is when I was finally able to study abroad and take a short course, I was motivated to continue my master’s degree at an overseas university. I received some extrinsic motivation from my parents, my sisters, and my friends.
English was one of the skills that my parents suggested that I acquire since, according to my parents, language is the key to open the world insights. My sisters also motivated me to study hard because I am the only one in my family who was able to go to college to study. My friends and my seniors’ successful stories of studying in a foreign country also motivated me to learn English, since they always said that in order to study abroad the key was mastering English. Whenever I remember this advice, my motivation increases, so that triggers me to regulate my own learning so that I can be successful in learning English.
However, the issue that we should remember is that motivation is not constant; it is dynamic and we can experience high or low motivation. It has been proven by some empirical studies, for example, Lamb (2007) in a longitudinal study, that at the beginning of a period in the research the learners were very motivated. They had high expectations of being successful in learning English but at the end of the research period, the learners felt their motivation had deteriorated.
Several factors contributed to the alteration of their motivation. One of them is the learning experience. At school, the learners did not have good learning experiences, for example, the teacher was not interesting and the learning activities were boring. I had such an experience when I was in senior high school. At the beginning of the semester, I was really keen on learning English, since my xperience of learning English in junior high school had been very positive. I had high expectations of being able to speak English fluently and carrying a good argument when there was a discussion. Unfortunately, my expectations were not met by the teaching strategies conveyed by my English teacher. In fact, my English teacher was very boring. He seldom attended the class or whenever he attended the class he only gave us assignments or tasks from the textbook. Due to those circumstances, my motivation for learning English declined.
There are some other factors that could demotivate learners’ language motivation as suggested by some researchers. For example, Dornyei (1998, cited in Yan, 2009 p.110) identified some types of de-motivating factors namely “the teacher (personality, commitment, competence, telling method), inadequate school facilities (group is too big or not the right level; frequent change of teachers), reduced self-confidence (experience of failure or lack of success), negative attitudes towards the L2”. In my learning experience, the teachers’ competence and personality were very influential factors in deteriorating my motivation. In addition to that, the negative attitude of people towards the foreign language community become challenging. Such demotivating factors of L2 learning need to be tackled.
To tackle the demotivating factors, particularly in relation to my own English experience as an undergraduate, I made several endeavours. Firstly, I created a good relationship with my teachers. I communicated with my teachers about my problems regarding motivation. I shared with my teachers what I wanted to learn. In addition, since I needed good English learning resources, I often went to the common library which had American Corners that provided abundant learning English resources not only books but audio and visual media that I could utilize to improve my English. Also, I was involved in a community-based English Club called Walisongo English Club. Here, I practiced English with my seniors and friends. The comfortable atmosphere of learning English elevated my motivation. In this club, the learning process was so democratic. We could determine the topic or issue that we needed to learn. Interestingly, this club often conducted fun events such as a camps and English contests such as speech contests or debates.