second language learning and language teaching (vivian cook) Ch 8 brief presentation about motivation and attitude and their role in second language learning

1. Individual Differences in
Second Language Learning

2. 2
The “Good Language Learner”
• Are there personal characteristics that make one
learner more successful than another?

3. Types of variation
Motivation
Age
Attitude
Personality
Aptitude

5. Evaluate these statements:
• Studying a foreign language is important to
my students because they will be able to
participate more freely in the activities of
other cultural groups.
• Studying a foreign language can be important
for my students because it will some day be
useful in getting a good job.

6. Keywords:
• integrative motivation:
learning the language in order to take part in the
culture of its people.
• instrumental motivation:
learning the language for a career goal or other
practical reason.

7. Motivation
• The child learning a first language does not
have good or bad motivation in any
meaningful sense
• The usual meaning of motivation for the
teacher is probably the interest that
something generates in the students:
(a particular topic, a particular song, may
interest the students in the class, to the
teacher’s delight).

8. Why do people learn languages ?
A survey in six countries of the European union
94%
•Communication abroad
86%
•Facilitation of computer work , and
comprehension of music texts
64%
•Sounds better in English
51%
•No expression in national language

9. Another survey by (EuroBarometer, 2006).

10. Integrative motivation Vs.
Instrumental motivation
• Some people want to learn a second language
with an integrative motivation such as ‘I would
like to live in the country where it is spoken’,
or with an instrumental one such as ‘For my
future career’, or indeed with both, or with
other motivations entirely.

11. Integrative motivation Vs.
Instrumental motivation
• The distinction between integrative and instrumental
motivation has been used as a point of reference by
many researchers.
• Zoltan Dornyei (1990) argues that it is biased towards
the Canadian situation where there is a particular
balance between the two official languages, English
and French. He therefore tested the motivation of
learners of English in the European situation of
Hungary. He found that an instrumental motivation
concerned with future careers was indeed very
powerful. Though an integrative motivation was also
relevant, it was not, as in Canada,

12. Motivation and teaching
• Students will find it difficult to learn a second
language in the classroom if they have
neither instrumental nor integrative
motivation. (Schoolchildren have no particular
contact with the foreign culture and no particular
interest in it, nor do their job prospects depend on it;
their attitudes to L2 users may depend more on the
stereotypes from their cultural situations than on any
real contact).

13. Motivation and teaching
• Otherwise teachers may have to go along with the
students’ motivation, or at least be sufficiently aware
of the students’ motivation so that any problems can
be smoothed over.
• In a teacher’s ideal world, students would enter the
classrooms admiring the target culture and language,
wanting to get something out of the L2 learning for
themselves, eager to experience the benefits of
bilingualism and thirsting for knowledge.

14. Motivation and teaching
• Motivation also goes in both directions. High
motivation is one factor that causes successful
learning; in reverse, successful learning causes high
motivation. The process of creating successful
learning which can spur high motivation may be
under the teacher’s control, if not the original
motivation.
For example, the choice of teaching materials and the
information content of the lesson should correspond
to the motivations of the students.

16. Attitude
Evaluate these statements :
• It is important to be able to speak two
languages.
• I will always feel more myself in my first
language than in my second.

17. Attitude
Keywords:
Additive Bilingualism: L2 learning that adds to
the learner’s capabilities in some way.
Subtractive Bilingualism: L2 learning that takes
away from the learner’s capabilities
Acculturation: the ways in which L2 users adapt
to life with two languages

18. Additive and Subtractive
bilingualism
• In additive bilingualism, the learners feel
they are adding something new to their skills
and experience by learning a new language,
without taking anything away from what they
already know.
• In subtractive bilingualism, they feel that the
learning of a new language threatens what
they have already gained for themselves.

19. Acculturation
Is it considered to be of value to maintain
cultural identity and characteristics?

20. Acculturation
Is it considered to be of value to maintain
relationships with other groups?

21. Acculturation
(the acculturation model)

22. Discussion topic
Some people say "I'm no good at learning
languages". Is this just a question of attitude
(because of a previous bad experience) or were
some people born lacking the ability to learn a
new language?