How often do we worry about our students’ experience in the foreign
language classroom? Is the class meeting their expectations? Some
of us might even ask the follow-up question, "Do our students
even know what they want?" or "Do they even care?" In the
midst of all these questions, one thing is clear - most folks
find the idea of being able to understand and speak another language
intriguing. Put another way, learning a language is "cool."
Many of our students, even though they might be somewhat intimidated
by the idea of starting language study if it begins as late as
middle and high school, enter the foreign language classroom with
this idea that, all-in-all, it will be cool to be able to use
another language. But then, oftentimes, they find out that their
idea of what it means to learn a second language and the teacher’s
idea are not the same. It seems that the teacher finds the need
to throw in grammar, a topic that students do not find very interesting,
even in their own native language.
So what do we, as teachers, do? Students want to learn to understand
and speak a new language. We teachers want our students to learn
how to understand and speak a new language. Where is the problem
with this seemingly perfect match between the desires of both
students and teachers?
The critical missing ingredient is a teacher’s awareness of the
importance of motivation. If students are not motivated by classroom
activities, they are not learning. Robert Gardner of the University
of Western Ontario warns that motivation is the most important
ingredient in language learning. And John Keller of Florida State
University advises that motivated students (1) have an interest
in what is happening in the classroom, (2) see the relevance of
classroom activities; (3) have a sense of expectancy that they
can be successful, and (4) can see an outcome of their time and
energy investment.
For those of us who are interested in whether or not our students
are getting what they want out of the foreign language experience,
we might ask ourselves the question "do they look motivated?"
If the answer is negative, then we can start by looking at Keller’s
ingredients to see what might be missing.
Just food for thought...
Gardner, Robert C. (1985). Social psychology and second language
learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. London, Ontario:
Edward Arnold.
Keller, John M. (1983). Motivational design of instruction. In
C.M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional design theories and models.
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
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