Vol. VI No. 1
March 1994



Editorial

Teachers Ask

Ten "motivational"
suggestions for
the SL teacher

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Motivation is a frequently heard term in the world of education and it is that theme which is the focus of this particular issue of Le Lien. The editorial for this issue takes a quick glance at some recent research in the area of motivation; the teacher featured in the "Faces in the Crowd" section of this newsletter is considered by her peers to be an expert in motivating students; and Dalton London felt motivated to respond to teachers' inquiries concerning teaching phonetics. This issue concludes with some motivational suggestions for the second language teacher.

As editor of this particular issue of Le Lien, I am taking this opportunity to share with you research in which I was recently involved. Personal and professional experiences were my initial motives for conducting a study into motivation and the second language learning environment. The central question for this research was: Are there any factors present within an adult second language learning environment that influence the motivation of individuals within that environment?

Motivation is an abstract concept used to refer to the internal attitudes, feelings, and beliefs that individuals may have that may cause them to perform or not to perform any given action. The term motivation has also been used to refer to extrinsic factors that may influence someone to be motivated in a specific way. Whatever the case may be, second language teachers (and all teachers, for that matter) often ask themselves how can they motivate their students.

Motivation is a psychological phenomenon experienced by individuals and is therefore not a visible characteristic. We may see what we believe to be evidence of "motivated students" in the form of increased participation, interest, effort, or attentiveness. Theoretically, the only person who is really aware of motivation is the individual learner and therefore it seemed to me that the best way to investigate the research questions concerning motivation was to address second language learners.

The learners in this study described several factors relating to other people in their class (including the instructor), to themselves, and to the learning context in general that they felt had influenced their motivation. The instructor's energy, knowledge, patience, encouragement and sense of humour emerged as motivating factors. Learners also commented that distractions, personality clashes, an overly wide range of language levels, and perceived negative attitudes of other learners were barriers to their motivation.

I believe that the learners' inner self as well as their outward behaviour are part of the learning environment. The learners in this study affirmed this belief when they commented on several personal factors that influenced their in-class motivation. For example, feelings of commitment and success had a stimulating influence on their motivation whereas negative emotions such as stress and upset caused by work and home situations had an opposite effect.

The course in terms of presentation and organization of activities as well as physical aspects of the learning environment were also noted as being influential to motivation. An enjoyable and varied course curriculum was seen as having a positive influence whereas unorganized, overly difficult course content influenced motivation in a negative way. These learners also recounted that physical attributes of the classroom relating to furniture, temperature, and air and sound quality influenced their motivation.

Although the participants in this study were adults, I believe that many of their comments may be relevant to the overall FSL learning experience. Motivation in the second language learning environment, based on this study, seemed to be a process that follows an up and down ever-changing path. Although this may be the case, second language teachers should be aware of the many potential factors that influence motivation and attempt to address the factors over which we have some control in order to create and maintain motivation.

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