The Importance Of Learner Motivation

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Learner motivation
Motivation is regarded as a short-term affair from moment to moment in the class. There are two types of motivation: integrative motivation and instrumental motivation. The former prompts students either to identify themselves with the target culture and people or to reject them. The latter refers to the situation where students are stimulated by an ulterior motive, for example, to pass an examination, or to find a job. A successful L2 language learner might be spurred either by an integrative motivation or by an instrumental one, or indeed by both, for one does not rule out the other. (Cook, 1996: 97) As a matter of fact, students in our learning context share either the integrative motivation (students like David, Carol and Hailey) or the instrumental one (students like Hailey …show more content…

By doing so, the ‘participation rights’ and ‘responsibility’ were handed over to students to manage their own language learning (Clifton 2006: 143). Clarification request plays an important role in second language acquisition in that learners are pushed to produce ‘comprehensible output’ by reformulating (rephrasing or paraphrasing) their contribution. (Swain, 1985, 1995, 2005, cited in Walsh 2006a; Garton 2002) The utilization of such kind of negotiated interactional devices get learners involved in elaborating and producing longer turns than answering routine or display questions (Lynch 1991: 203). By engaging in the topic that is of their interest, learner authenticity can be achieved. It helps create and sustain a high degree of motivation among learners (Kumaravadivelu 1993:18). It also brings the theoretical sequential organization of language class to life, helping students raise conscious awareness of the “conversational importance of expanding initial answers” (Nakamura 2009:132), and importance of “developing their own interactional management skills” (Garton 2002:

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