REPÚBLICA BOLIVARIANA DE VENEZUELA

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGÓGICA EXPERIMENTAL LIBERTADOR

MAESTRÍA: LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLÉS COMO SEGUNDA LENGUA
APRENDIZAJE DE UNA SEGUNDA LENGUA

FACILITADOR: MADE BY:

Rebeca Oropeza Ailed Reina
March 1, 2008 Freddy Valderrey
José Moreno

SOME DEFINITIONS RELATED TO AFFECTIVE VARIABLES

AFFECT

New World Dictionary of American College (1990):

• An emotion or feeling attached to an idea, object, etc.
• A stimulus or motive arousing an emotion or mood.
• In general, emotion or emotional response.
• Affect implies the producing of an effect strong enough to evoke a reaction; to
influence is to affect in such a way as to produce a change in action, thought, native or
behavior.
As a conclusion, affect plays a very important role in language acquisition. It needs
to be taken into consideration by teachers to make sure students' affection is high at all times
for learning to take place.

EMOTION

Barner & Nobel (2006) Emotion is a complex, subjective experience accompanied

by biological and behavioral changes. Emotion involves feeling, thinking, activation of the
nervous system, physiological changes, and behavioral changes such as facial expressions.

ThinkQuest Internet Challenge (1999): The word emotion includes a wide range of
observable behaviors, expressed feelings, and changes in the body state. This diversity in
intended meanings of the word emotion make it hard to study. For many of us emotions are
very personal states, difficult to define or to identify except in the most obvious instances.
Moreover, many aspects of emotion seem unconscious to us. Even simple emotional states
appear to be much more complicated than states as hunger and thirst.

MOTIVATION

Sue Lintern (2002) Motivation is a desire to achieve a goal, combined with the
energy to work towards that goal. Students who are motivated have a desire to undertake
their study and complete the requirements of their course.

Bruner (1994) Motivation is the extent to which you make choices about (a) goals to
pursue and (b) the effort you will devote to that pursuit.

Gardner and Lambert (1972) introduced the notions of instrumental and integrative
motivation. In the context of language learning, instrumental motivation refers to the
learner's desire to learn a language for utilitarian purposes (such as employment or travel),
whereas integrative motivation refers to the desire to learn a language to integrate
successfully into the target language community. In later research studies, Crookes and
Schmidt (1991), and Gardner and Tremblay (1994) explored four other motivational
orientations:
(a) reason for learning,
(b) desire to attain the learning goal,
(c) positive attitude toward the learning situation, and
(d) effortful behavior.

Many theorists and researchers have found that it is important to recognize the
construct of motivation not as a single entity but as a multi-factorial one. Oxford and
Shearin (1994) analyzed a total of 12 motivational theories or models, including those from
socio-psychology, cognitive development, and socio-cultural psychology, and identified six
factors that impact motivation in language learning:
• attitudes (i.e., sentiments toward the learning community and the target language)
• beliefs about self (i.e., expectancies about one's attitudes to succeed, self-efficacy,
and anxiety)
• goals (perceived clarity and relevance of learning goals as reasons for learning)
• involvement (i.e., extent to which the learner actively and consciously participates
in the language learning process)
• environmental support (i.e., extent of teacher and peer support, and the integration
of cultural and outside-of-class support into learning experience)
• personal attributes (i.e., aptitude, age, sex, and previous language learning
experience).

Sometimes a distinction is made between positive and negative motivation.

Positive motivation is a response which includes enjoyment and optimism about the tasks
that you are involved in.
Negative motivation involves undertaking tasks for fear that there should be undesirable
outcomes, eg. failing a subject, if tasks are not completed.
In general, explanations regarding the source of motivation can be categorized as
either extrinsic (outside the person) or intrinsic (internal to the person) Deci & Ryan (1985).
Extrinsic motivation is like borrowed money, an investment which may eventually pay off,
whereas intrinsic motivation is like money you own. Being very highly motivated is like
having a lot of money, and like money, motivation can be wasted or well-spent.
After reading some materials and books, we have found from Gardner & Smythe's
(1975) original model of motivation contains four main components (figure below):
i) group-specific attitudes;
ii) learners' motives for learning the target language;
iii) affective factors (Stern's 'Generalized Attitudes'); and
iv) extrinsic and intrinsic motivation (Stern's "Attitudes towards the learning
situation"):
Motivation

Learners' motives
Group specific Extrinsic and
for learning the Affective factors
attitudes intrinsic motivation
target language

Favourable versus 1. Interest in

unfavourable foreign languages
Motivational
attitudes to the 2. Anomie
intensity
users of the target 3. Need for
language achievement Factors from self-instruction
4. Ethnocentrisms promoting intrinsic motivation (i.e.
5. Authoritarianism continuing willingness to put learning
6. Machiavellianism at a high level of priority):
1. Learner's awareness of needs
and goals
2. Perceived relevance of the
course to achieving goals
3. Maintenance of self-esteem as
a person through involvement
in decision making
4. Degree of freedom to use
preferred learning strategies
5. Membership of a supportive
group leading to increased
empathy and reduced
inhibitions
6. Trouble shooting procedures
Integrative Instrumental
motivation motivation
 Extrinsic motivation provided in self-
instruction (i.e. incentives,
encouragements and threats):
1. Teacher/counsellor
2. Learning contracts
3. Records of work
4. Self-assessment/peer-
assessment
5. Reality testing
6. Summative assessment
GARDNER & SMYTHE'S MODEL OF MOTIVATION (1975)

This model was subsequently expanded in Gardner's (1985) socio-educational

model of the ways in which motivation for foreign language learning operates in
educational settings. We took this example to explain and show how important the
motivation in the language acquisition is.
In the 1980s the learning situation itself received more attention from a group of
researchers. Dörnyei in 1994 was one of them and he identified three sets of motivational
components:
i) course-specific motivational components (syllabus, teaching materials,
teaching method, learning task)
ii) teacher-specific motivational components (teacher personality, teaching
feedback, relationship with the students); and
iii) group-specific motivational components (dynamics of the learning group,
goal-orientedness, norm and reward system, group cohesion, classroom
goal structures).

Also Dörnyei (1998) suggests seven main motivational dimensions:

1. the affective/integrative dimension ;
• integrative motives;
• affective motives;
• language attitudes;
• intrinsic motives/attitudes towards L2 learning/enjoyment/interest;
2. the instrumental/pragmatic dimension;
3. the macro-context-related dimension (multi-cultural/intergroup/ethnolinguistic
relations);
4. the self-concept-related dimension (generalised/trait-like personality factors);
• self-concept;
• confidence/self-efficacy;
• anxiety/inhibitions;
• success/failure-related (attributional) factor;
• expectancy;
• need for achievement;
5. the goal-related dimension;
6. the educational context-related dimension (learning/classroom/school environment);
7. the significant others-related dimension (parents, family, friends).

LANGUAGE’S PERCEPTION. Piaget, Chomsky, and Vygotsky

Some of the characteristics of motivation are cognitive in nature, some are affective,
and some are behavioral. When considering motivation and second language learning or
acquisition it is possible to consider two types of motivational constructs. They are the
language learning motivation and classroom motivation. By language learning motivation,
it is meant the motivation to learn (and acquire) a second or foreign language, which is
considered within a socio-educational model of second language acquisition.
The second class of motivation is classroom learning motivation, which is language
classroom. It is represented in the social-educational model of second language acquisition
or foreign language learning, and it is considered part of motivation in general. It refers to
the motivation in the classroom situation, or in any specific situation. The focus is in the
individuals’ perception on the task at hand. It will be influence by a host of factor
associated with the language class. It is clear that the teacher, the class atmosphere, the
course content, materials and facilities, as well as personal characteristics of the student
will have the influence on the individual’s classroom learning motivation. In the social-
educational model, we contend that it will also be influenced the general language learning
motivation already mentioned.
It is difficult to define motivation as it is to define the acquisition of a second
language or learning a second language. Krashen’s (1998) sets distinction between second
and foreign language refers to the development of knowledge and skill that permits varying
degrees of communication with others, while acquisition involves making the language part
of the self.
In this paper, we will consider three different models of language development.
Piaget’s cognitive model, Chomsky’s linguistics model, and Vygotsky’s social constructive
model.
Piaget’s view about language development is related to cognitive development. That
is, the development of the child’s thinking determines when the child can learn to speak and
what the child can say. Children can only use certain linguistic structures when they
understand fully the concepts surrounding them.
Language acquisition is linked to child’s maturation, to use linguistic structures they
must understand the concept. One of the phases, is when a child can not use comparison of
size if the child does not understand the concept of size. For example, before a child can
say, “This car is bigger than that one”, she/he must have developed the ability to judge
differences in size. In Piaget’s view, children learn to talk “naturally” when they are
“ready”.
To Chomsky, children are born with an innate capacity for language development.
The human brain is “ready” for language, so much so that when children are exposed to
speech they pick it up naturally and begin to work out the underlying rules for themselves.
It is the innate knowledge. Chomsky cited by Brown (1994) says that the innate knowledge
is embodied in a “littler black box” of sorts, which is the language acquisition device LAD.
It consists of four innate linguistics properties: (1) the ability to distinguish speech sound
from other sounds in the environment, (2) the ability to organize linguistic event into
various classes which can later be refined, (3) knowledge that only a certain kind of
linguistic system is possible and that other kind are not, (4) the ability to engage in constant
evaluation of the developing linguistic system so as to construct the simplest possible
system out of the linguistic data that are encountered. In the nativist tradition all human
being are genetically equipped by Universal Grammar.
Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist emphasized the fact that language is a social tool
that facilitates understanding between cultures, if it is properly learned and used. One
essential tenet in Vygotsky's theory is the notion of the existence of what he called the
"zone of proximal development". The actual developmental level refers to all the functions
and activities that a child can perform on his own, independently without the help of
anyone else. On the other hand, the zone of proximal development includes all the
functions and activities that a child or a learner can perform only with the assistance of
someone else. The person in this scaffolding process, providing non-intrusive intervention,
could be an adult (parent, teacher, caretaker, language instructor) or another peer who has
already mastered that particular function.
Giving the fact, that language is acquired in a different ways like in “stages”, as a
Universal Grammar or in a “social context”. To Piaget means that motivation in learning a
language will depend on the active search of meaning and satisfactions when relating the
knowledge of the language and the processes of learning it. In Chomsky’s case language is
learned regardless of their environmental stimuli (the language(s) learners hear around
them) bring to language acquisition process. The motivation is language itself. Vygotsky’s
perception of motivation is to develop and satisfy the learning of a language. Learners
should interrelate culturally with the foreign language. Motivation is instrumental and
integrative.
To conclude, language learning motivation and class motivation will depend on
language perception the teacher has and the reasons and factors learners have in relation to
the language acquisition or the process of learning.

SUGGESTION FOR MOTIVATING LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Dörnyei (1998) therefore suggests "Ten Commandments for Motivating Language

Learners” (Dörnyei & Csizér, in press):

1. Set a personal example with your own behaviour.

2. Create a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere in the classroom.
3. Present the task properly.
4. Develop a good relationship with the learners.
5. Increase the learner's linguistic self-confidence.
6. Make the language classes interesting.
7. Promote learner autonomy.
8. Personalise the learning process.
9. Increase the learners' goal-orientedness.
10. Familiarise learners with the target language culture.

Oxford & Shearin (1996) also offer practical suggestions for teachers:
 1. Teachers can identify why students are studying the new language.
o Teachers can find out actual motivations (motivation survey).
o Information on motivation can be passed on to the next class in a portfolio.
o Teachers can determine which parts of L2 learning are especially valuable
for the students.
2. Teachers can help shape students' beliefs about success and failure in L2 learning.
o Students can learn to have realistic but challenging goals.
o Teachers can learn to accept diversity in the way students establish and meet
their goals, based on differences in learning styles.
3. Teachers can help students improve motivation by showing that L2 learning can be an
exciting mental challenge, a career enhancer, a vehicle to cultural awareness and friendship
and a key to world peace.
4. Teachers can make the L2 classroom a welcoming, positive place where psychological
needs are met and where language anxiety is kept to a minimum.
5. Teachers can urge students to develop their own intrinsic rewards through positive self-
talk, guided self-evaluation, and mastery of specific goals, rather than comparison with
other students. Teachers can thus promote a sense of greater self-efficacy, increasing
motivation to continue learning the L2.

References

• Brown, H. Douglas 1993. “Principle of Language Learning Teaching” 3rd ed.

Prentice Hall Regents. San Francisco State University.

• Brown, H. Douglas 1994. “Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to

Language Pedagogy”. Prentice Hall Regents. San Francisco State University.

• New World Dictionary of American College (1990), Second college edition.

Cambridge.

Internet Source

- Dr. K. Shaaban Spring 2002

American University of Beirut Education 345: "Second Language Acquisition"
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http://publish.uwo.ca/~gardner/SPAINTALK.pdf[Visited on 02/23/2008]
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- Ngeow, Karen (1998) Motivation and Transfer in Language Learning. ERIC Digest.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/17/4
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- Oracle Educational Foundation (1996), Library Think Quest
http://library.thinkquest.org/26618/en-1.4.1=What%20are%20emotions.htm
[Visited on 02/25/2008]
- Schütz, Ricardo (2004) "Vygotsky & Language Acquisition." English Made in Brazil.
http://www.sk.com.br/sk-vygot.html[Visited on 02/21/2008]
- SparkNotes LLC (2006)
http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/emotion/section1.html
[Visited on 02/21/2008]
- Sue Lintern September, 2002 University of South Australia Disclaimer
Template prepared by the Flexible Learning Centre
http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/motivation/Pages/What%20is%20Motivation.htm
[Visited on 02/23/2008]