Motivating Students to Learn English - Essay Example

?Motivation of foreign to learn English as a second language Construct definition The construct on which the questionnaire is based is that of motivation. Motivation can be correctly defined as the process which initiates, drives and sustains goal-oriented behaviors (Ryan and Deci, 2000). It is what leads us to act or behave in a certain way. Motivation incorporates the biological, emotional as well as social and cognitive forces which lead to the activation of behavior. In its everyday usage, the term is often used to explain why an individual does something. There are three main components as far as motivation is concerned. These are activation, persistence and intensity (Ryan and Deci, 2000) Activation comprises the decision to behave in a certain way, for example enrolling in an English language class. Persistence is the amount of effort continuously put in to achieve that goal despite the existence of numerous obstacles, such as taking more advanced English courses in order to get a higher degree despite the fact that it requires a lot of input in terms of time, energy as well as resources. Intensity is observable as the concentration and vigor applied in achieving a goal. For example, while one student might not put in enough effort and go through the course, another would work hard, study regularly, participate actively in class and apply learnt knowledge outside of class. The construct of motivation comprises two major classifications: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Research has shown how intrinsic motivation has come to be a critical emerging phenomena for educators where motivational is crucially defines the learning and achievement which molds the practices of the students (Ryan & Stiller, 1991). Extrinsic motivations are those that arise outside of an individual whereas intrinsic motivation is the one which an individual himself generates. Research conducted by Vallerand and Bissonnette, 1992, goes to show how students can carry out extrinsically motivated actions by expressing resentment, resistance, a lack of interest or simply by an attitude of willingness to carry out a task. Either way the student is either externally propelled into action or the goals he defines can be self-endorsed and carried out with a sense of volition. Understanding the divergent types of extrinsic motivation, and how they are fostered, is a critical area of importance as far as educators who rely completely on intrinsic motivation in order to foster learning are concerned. A study conducted at the Zayed University in the UAE, on a sample of female university students, regarding student’s motivation for learning English, showed that their main factors of motivation for learning were mainly instrumental. However additional studies carried out on Arab students goes to show that they have a tendency to be more instrumentally motivated when it comes to learning a second language and that those who are integratively motivated are a part of the minority (Zughol & Taminian, 1984). The questionnaire administered pertains to gaining an understanding of the motivation of foreign students when it comes to learning a second language. In this case the language selected is English. Looking at the critical role that learning English plays, in addition to desire of school administrators and teaching staff to look at the motivating factors that motivate secondary school students to undertake and efficiently learn a second language is the basic idea behind this study. The hypothesis based on the prior research conducted on the subject is that students from secondary schools in the UAE are more likely to learn a second language due to instrumental motivations. According to my research as far as motivation to learn secondary/foreign language is concerned the aspect is known as the learner’s orientation as far as the goal to learn a second language is concerned (Crookes & Schmidt, 1991). To develop a questionnaire that investigates and looks at the motivation of second language acquisition, the two types of motivation that I identified were integrative and instrumental motivation. Integrative motivation aims to look at the learners’ positive attitude as far as the target language group and the desire to integrate into the target language community were concerned. Instrumental motivation on the other hand looked at the aspect of achievement of some kind of a social or economic gain associated with the learning of the language (Gardner & Lambert, 1972). So an accumulation of these two aspects as far as motivation was concerned was the two underlining elements as far as the creation of the questions and designing the questionnaire were concerned. Method The respondents for the study comprises of ten students from a secondary school located in the UAE, Sharjah Educational. All of the students who completed the questionnaire were male and they were between the ages of 15 to 18. All the participants of the study have been studying English as a second language for at least 6 years. Sample and administering the questionnaire The obtaining of the sample of respondents and administrating of the questionnaire was the most challenging aspect. The questionnaire was manually distributed by a friend who actually resides in the UAE, Abu Dhabi. The participants were told about the objective of the questionnaire being finding out the reasons behind them undertaking English as a second language and why they liked or disliked it. They were promised to remain anonymous and that the results derived from the questionnaire were strictly to be used for academic knowledge generation. Results The questionnaire was based on the use of a Likert scale with a 1 – 5 rating scale. 1 signifying being highly unfavorable to the concept whereas 5 highlighting strongly favoring a concept. To identify the high and low scores generated by the questionnaire, frequency, mean and a standard deviation was calculated and worked out for each item of the questionnaire. The questions focused on measuring the integrative and instrumental motivation of the students. There were five items that aimed to measure the integrative motivation of the students and another 5 that looked at the instrumental motivation pertaining to their learning of a second language. Additionally, paired samples T-test was done to check if there are any statistical significant differences between the integrative and instrumental motivation items. The standard motivation scores are that of a Standard Deviation of 0.60 and instrumental motivation being 0.51. After doing the T-test, it was seen that there is a critical difference between the two scores (t = -5.68, p = 0.001). A close examination of the results generated by the use of the frequency distribution and the mean scores of responses of the five items measuring integrative motivation showed that the students’ level of integrative motivation was pretty high. Looking at the mean scores pertaining to items 5, 6 and 7 as being key motivating factors for learning English, that is, getting a good job, establishing a good future career and increase in knowledge. It was also seen from the low scores on the item 3 that an understanding of foreign art and literature ranked low and was not a primary aim of foreign students as far as motivation to learn English was concerned. However a comparison of the mean scores of the two sections (Integrative vs. instrumental questions) goes to show that the respondents are to quite an extent ‘integratively’ motivated when compared to their instrumental motivation. However their degree of instrumental motivation is also pretty high. The results of administering the questionnaire are to a great extent in line with the previous research conducted on the subject, such as the research undertaken by Al Mutawa, 1994 and Alam 1988. However a difference that is noticeable is the fact that in those studies the integrative motivation was found to be quite low however based on the questionnaire the results of the current study show that the integrativeness in Arab students when it comes to learning the English language is comparatively higher than assumed. A weakness pertaining to the disparity in these results could be due to a number of reasons. Firstly the fact that the sample on which the questionnaire was administered poses a number of limitations; the limited number which were a part of the study led to a weakness in terms of generalizing the results obtained. Perhaps if instead of 10 the participants their number had been greater, say a 100 or more, the validity in terms of the generalization of the results would be more pronounced. Secondly, another weakness of the sample was the fact that the students that participated were all male. This leads to a restriction in terms of the gender of the male to be inculcated as part of the study. If the motivation of the male and female students varies it cannot be analyzed based on the results of the current sample selected. Another key weakness of the study is the fact that it does not take into account other variables which might have contributed to the motivation or de-motivation of the students; more specifically analyzing the impact of the teaching instructor on the student’s motivation towards learning English. The skill, training, qualifications, experience and the techniques adopted by the instructor play a critical role in gauging the interest of the students and their motivation (Keblawi, 2005). Other areas of concern which if incorporated in the study by the use of a wider geographical area and foreign students that could be addressed are those pertaining to the different motives and needs that different individuals have depending on their learning contexts. Culture could also have a lot to do as far as the motivations of a foreign student towards second language learning are concerned. A high context culture area such as China or Korea where the learning of English is limited due to a key emphasis on their own language as an ingrained part of their culture would come up with a set of results more diverse than the one’s now derived from the questionnaire. References Alam, M., Hussein, M. and Khan, B. (1988). A Study of the Attitudes of Students, Teachers and Parents towards English as a Foreign Language. Saudi Arabia, Ministry of Education, Educational Development. Al- Mutawa, N. (1994). Factors Influencing English Language Teaching and Learning in the Secondary Schols. Educational Sciences, Cairo University, 1, 33 – 60 Crookes, G., and Schmit, W. (1991). Motivation: Reopening the Research Agenda. Language Learning, 41, 169 – 513. Gardner, C. and Lambert, E. (1972). Attitudes and Motivation in Second Language Learning. Rowley, MA. Keblawi, F. (2005). Demotivation among Learner of English as Foreign Language. The Reading Matrix, Inc. United States. Ryan, R. and Deci, A. (2000). Motivation: Classic definition and New Directions. Educational Psychology 25, 50 – 68. Ryan, M., Stiller, J., & Lynch, H. (1994). Representations of relationships to teachers, parents, and friends as predictors of academic motivation and self-esteem. Journal of Early Adolescence, 14, 225 - 234 Vallerand, J., & Bissonnette, R. (1992). Intrinsic, extrinsic, and motivational styles as predictors of behavior: A prospective study. Journal of Personality, 60, 598–619 The Questionnaire Integrative motivation 1. My reason for studying English is so that I can be more comfortable around English speakers 2. I study English so that I can converse with different people 3. I study English so that I can understand foreign art and literature 4. I study English so that I can participate in the activities conducted by other cultural groups 5. I study English so that I can be more confident around a diverse group Instrumental motivation 6. I study English because it is important for my future career 7. I study English so that I can have more knowledge 8. I study English because it will help me get a good job 9. I study English so that other people will respect me more 10. I study English because it will help me study abroad Read More