Matthew Noble SLA: LS 658 Reed - Summer 1 Article Critique #2

Motivating Language Learners: A Classroom-Oriented Investigation of the Effects of Motivational Strategies on Student Motivation Marie J. Guilloteaux & Zoltan Dornyei

! Guilloteaux describes motivation as something that provides the primary impetus to initiate second or foreign language learning and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process (56). Motivation is conceived of as the spark of learning as well as the fuel of learning. It would appear to include and combine notions of intention, effort, attraction, and interest. As such, motivation is given a very central place in the overall approach and ability of a language learner. Without sufcient motivation, individuals with the most remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long-term goals...appropriate curricula and good teaching are not enough...students need a modicum of motivation (56). Motivation, then, is viewed as indispensable in the process of learning and teaching. ! Guilloteaux claims that previous research in motivation was limited to dening motivation without implicating how we can use this knowledge to motivate learners (56). This study is part of a newer generation of research endeavors in this area geared towards informing methodological developments. While the literature reports on teachers motivational strategies, very little has been done to answer a crucial question: Are the proposed techniques actually effective in language classrooms? (56). While the strategies had popular and intuitive appeal, theyd been spared a thorough empirical treatment. This study aims to ll that gap (57). ! The motivational strategies which are the focus of the study are a number of instructional interventions applied by the teacher to elicit and stimulate student motivation and...self-regulating strategies...used by students to manage...their own motivation (57). They all fall under these four dimensions: 1. Creating basic motivational conditions 2. Generating initial interest 3. Maintaining and protecting motivation 4. Encouraging positive retrospective self-evaluation ! The empirical study itself was done by observing 27 EFL teachers in Korea. The students were between the ages of 12 and 15 years old. The MOLT schema was developed as a real-time record of teachers motivational strategy performance and the students responses to such actions on a minute-to-minute basis. A student survey and a teacher self-assessment were also included in the study. ! The results conrmed that the teachers motivational practice has a highly signicant position correlation with the learners motivated behavior and teachers motivational teaching practice not only affects the students immediate response in the classroom but is also associated with a more general appreciation of the whole course (70).

! The article states that by establishing a link between teacher behaviors and student motivation, our study provides a rst step toward putting motivational issues on the teacher education agenda (73). As the article intimated near the beginning, issues of how teaching strategies inuence student motivation are highly intuitive. I would argue that the design of the teachers practice in most modern teacher methodologies includes a kind of imbedded consideration of motivation. ! ! The only reason to insist upon the notion that a study such as this provides a rst step towards putting motivation on the teacher education agenda would be insistence that empiricism alone has the power to direct our teaching approaches. Im not so sure we necessarily have to (or indeed do) wait until each and every aspect of teaching is thoroughly empirically studied to acknowledge them, as the above statement would seem to imply. !