Thread: What is motivation? How important is it?

To quote Dornyei, ‘teacher skills in motivating learners should be seen as central to teaching effectiveness’.
(2001:116)
It is important tenet, then, to the teacher’s armoury.

Social psychologists have distinguished three ways that a teacher can get a student to do what is required in the lesson, to follow the teacher’s instruction.

i). Coercively - through punishment or the threat of punishment.
ii). Reward – through rewarding appropriate behaviour or the promise of such.
iii). Instillation - instilling intrinsic motivation with the student to perform of his/her own will/ desire.

Whilst punishment can be effective and necessary, I am not going to go through the ways of punishing students!

Reward is also an effective and more cheerful way to get students to respond, and we will look at that. But Thanasoulas points out that, ‘fostering motivation…is considered to be the most effective and proactive…power relationship’.
Hence, this will be examined in most detail.

Motivational Conditions
Motivational strategies are not possible in a vacuum, and need certain preconditions before they become effective. Some of these conditions are as follows:

i). Appropriate teaching behaviour and good teacher-student rapport.
ii). A pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere
iii). A cohesive learner group characterised by appropriate group norms

Many aspects to these three overlap.

Appropriate teacher behaviour and good teacher-student rapport
Almost all that the teacher does in the classroom has a motivational, or de-motivational, influence upon students. Dornyei writes that, ‘teacher behaviour… is a powerful motivational tool’. (2001:120). Rapport between teacher and students is as crucial as, if not more so than, instruction-giving in ‘prevailing upon’ or ‘attracting’ students to engage in a task.
Alison (1993) emphasises the need for mutual trust and respect, one way of garnering such being talking to each other on a personal level whilst managing to maintain the teacher’s authority. Enthusiasm and genuine interest in individual learners is also a fundamental element to fostering trust and rapport, verbally and non-verbally. Imparting a sense of commitment to and interest in the subject matter, expresses to the students their importance to the teacher, and students as such will take their cues from the teacher’s lead.

A pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere
Learner motivation is most fully realised in a safe classroom climate. What constitutes such? A classroom without tension, where students are encouraged to express their feelings without the fear of ridicule, where mutual respect is apparent not just between students and teacher, but also amongst the students themselves. Of course, this last element is something that can remain beyond the teacher’s control, although the teacher does have the ability to harmonise relationships through fostering student rapport and integration.
Motivation to learn for the student comes from having ample opportunities to challenge themselves with new activities, alongside sufficient support and encouragement of their learning efforts from the teacher.
Classroom management here is essential for an effective learning environment to be created. Students must understand what the teacher requires of them, to be able to undertake given tasks without lack of understanding, and those students who are anxious or alienated must be given support not only from the teacher but also from their peers. The teacher therefore must designate responsibility, either overtly or covertly, to stronger students to aid others who may be struggling. The element of co-operation between students must be clarified and emphasised to the point that it no longer needs a cue from the teacher, but is understood as a fundamental aspect to study.
These last point leads onto the last precondition for the creation of motivational conditions.

A cohesive learner group characterised by group norms
Ineffective groups are often characterised by fragmentation and lack of co-operation. This hinders the individual’s desire to learn. If the group does not appear to be unitary and of similar attitude to progress, the individual can suffer a lack of spirit to undertake tasks and a feeling of alienation from peers and from the teacher. Commitment, then, is undermined.
Factors that promote group cohesiveness include time spent together, shared group history, knowledge of each other, widespread interaction within the class, intergroup competition and (bringing in punishment), a common threat. The first two can obviously only come from time, the others can be generated through activities promoted by the teacher.
Group norms are the parameters within which the students can act. They can be discussed and adopted by all members most practically at the beginning of the course. The teacher must ensure that all students understand and abide by such norms, otherwise authority is undermined and classroom management starts to crack. (see Liz’s student-teacher contract).

Generating Student Motivation
Ideally, all students contain an inborn curiosity to discover the world, so learning should be intrinsically pleasurable and desirable. Of course this is not always the case, especially with complex grammar points, which leads on to teaching techniques and back to classroom management. Compulsory attendance, contents of the curriculum and the importance placed on grades also impair student curiosity.

Teachers need to increase and clarify students’ ‘goal-orientedness’, manipulate the curriculum so it appears more relevant for them and create realistic learner beliefs. If students are uncertain what is required of them and what they have to do, their lack of purpose will dissipate their motivation. Hence, clear instruction and information at the beginning and throughout the course is conducive to generating purpose.

Increasing learners’ ‘goal-orientedness’
Thanasoulas writes that,’ In an ordinary class, many, if not most, students do not understand why they are involved in an activity. It may be the case that the goal set by outsiders (i.e., the teacher or curriculum) is far from being accepted by the group members. Thus, it would seem beneficial to increase the groups’ goal-orientedness, that is, the extent to which the group tunes in to the pursuit of its official goal. This could be achieved by allowing students to define their own personal criteria for what should be a group goal.’

Making the curriculum relevant for learners
According to Chambers (1999: 37), ‘If the teacher is to motivate pupils to learn, then relevance has to be the red thread permeating activities’. Whilst of course many students do homework and undertake other activities which may not be that interesting to them, with the belief that what is being taught will someday come in handy, to produce more inspiration amongst students to engage in learning tasks off their own back, finding out what their goals are and what topics interest them, and then incorporating such into the curriculum is a strategy for motivation.

Creating realistic learner beliefs
Thanasoulas: ‘It is widely acknowledged that learner beliefs about how much progress to expect, and at what pace, can, and do, lead to disappointment. Therefore, it is important to help learners get rid of their preconceived notions that are likely to hinder attainment’. Students, then, need to develop an understanding of what L2 language learning consists of. they need to be realistic of what can be achieved in the time of a course. They also need to realize that L2 mastery can be achieved in many different ways, using a diversity of strategies, and a vital factor is for students to find out for themselves what are the optimal methods and techniques.

Maintaining and protecting motivation
Demotivation is apparent when after action has commenced, the student becomes distracted through a tendency to become bored or tired with the task at hand. Thanasoulas: “Therefore, there should be a motivational repertoire including several motivation maintenance strategies.” Two are a). increasing the learners’ self confidence and b). creating learner autonomy.

Increasing the learners’ self-confidence
Maintaining and increasing learners’ self confidence is especially important, particularly in an environment where the young student can lose ‘face’ in front of peers. Dornyei highlights five approaches to boost confidence (2001: 130).

i). Teachers can foster the belief that competence is a changeable aspect of development.
ii). Favourable self-conceptions of L2 competence can be promoted by providing regular experiences of success.
iii). Everyone is more interestd in a task if they feel that they make a contribution.
iv). A small, personal word of encourage ment is sufficient.
v). Teachers can reduce classroom anxiety by making the learning context less stressful.

Creating learner autonomy
Rogers writes that, ‘the only kind of learning which significantly affects behaviour is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning’ (1961: 276). The idea of the autonomous learner, of the student taking charge of his/her own learning, has been promoted by a range of educationists (for example, see Benson, 2000; Little, 1991; Wenden, 1991). Giving the students value to what they are doing can be maximised by granting them free choice and autonomy on what and how they study (Good and Brophy 1994: 228). Benson identifies five types of practise fostering the development of autonomy:-

i). Resource-based approaches, emphasising independent interaction with learning materials.
ii). Technology-based approaches, which emphasise independent interaction with educational technologies.
iii). Learner-based approaches, which emphasise the direct production of behavioural and psychological changes in the learner.
iv). Classroom-based approaches, which emphasise changes in the relationship between learners and teachers in the classroom.
v). Curriculum-based approaches, which extend the idea of learner control over the planning and evaluation of learning to the curriculum as a whole.

Ushioda (1997: 41) puts it succinctly when he writes, ‘Self-motivation is a question of thinking effectively and meaningfully about learning experience and learning goals. It is a question of applying positive thought patterns and belief structures so as to optimise and sustain one’s involvement in learning.”

Encouraging positive self-evaluation
Teachers approach and tackle learning tasks on the basis of how learners have felt about previous accomplishments and the amount of satisfaction felt after task completion. Using appropriate strategies, the teacher can help learners evaluate themselves in a positive way, encouraging them to take credit for their advances. Dornyei (2201: 134) suggests three such strategies:-

i). promoting attributions to effort rather than ability
ii). providing motivational feedback
ii). increasing learner satisfaction and the question of rewards and grades

Increasing learner satisfaction and the question of rewards and grades
Thanasoulas: “The feeling of satisfaction is a significant factor in reinforcing achievement behaviour, which renders satisfaction a major component of motivation. Motivational strategies aimed at increasing learner satisfaction usually focus on allowing students to display their work, encouraging them to be proud of themselves and celebrate success, as well as using rewards.”
The reward strategy of grades is not a blanket motivation for students because its focus is on performance outcomes, rather than the more favourable and productive process of learning itself. Whilst many students look to grades to see how well they are performing, it is wrong to use them as the sole source of motivation for the reason that grade achievement is not applicable to every student; the weak student who gets a poor grade is just as likely to be demotivated to study harder as motivated. Other systems must be applied, other reward strategies must be in place which are suitable for all students, and ones which all students can perform well within the parameters.

Conclusion
Dornyei writes that, ‘In general, motivation is the ‘neglected heart’ of our understanding of how to design instruction’ (Dornyei, 2001: 116). Thanasoulas: “Many teachers believe that by sticking to the language materials and trying to discipline their refractory students, they will manage to create a classroom environment that will be conducive to learning. Nevertheless, these teachers seem to lose sight of the fact that, unless they accept their students’ personalities and work on those minute details that constitute their social and psychological make-up, they will fail to motivate them. What is more, they will not be able to form a cohesive and coherent group, unless they succeed in turning most ‘curriculum goals’ (goals set by outsiders) into ‘group goals’ (goals accepted by the group members, that is students). “
Learning a foreign language is different to learning other subjects. The promotion and achievement of success comes down to many factors, which must be taken into account. ‘Language is a part of one’s identity and is used to convey this identity to others. As a result, foreign language learning has a significant impact on the social being of the learner, since it involves the adoption of new social and cultural behaviours and ways of thinking’.

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