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How motivation affects success in language learning
How motivation affects success in language learning
How motivation affects success in language learning
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Second language learning is the process of learning a different language other than one’s mother tongue resulting in the ability of an individual to use one or more languages different from his first language. It can take place in a natural setting or through classroom instructions; however, the degree of proficiency differs (Gomleksiz, 2001). Learning is a conscious process that includes thorough explanation of grammar rules, practice of those rules, as well as memorizing lists of vocabulary, usually in a classroom setting (Wisniewski, 2007). Learners usually use their culture, first language, environment, background and personal experiences among others to learn a second language. Second Language learning is necessitated by the different situations of different people. For instance, it can be for social or academic purposes. Learners are affected by many factors in the second language acquisition process such as level of cognitive development, socio-economic and cultural background, age, motivation or ability and intelligence (Gomleksiz, 2001; Wisniewski, 2007). This paper will however concentrate on how intelligence or aptitude and motivation affect the learning of a second language. According to (Wisniewski, 2007), second language learning process differs from first language acquisition, with the latter taking place usually from infancy in a community using a specific language and affected mainly by neurological developments in the brain (McCain, 2000) while the former taking place usually in schools or later in life and affected by age and associated characteristics (McCain, 2000). It is necessary to draw a distinction between foreign language and second language learning. According to (Wisniewski, 2007), a language lear... ... middle of paper ... ...t/cupidlucid/3-factors-affecting-l2-learning-presentation, n.d). Just like in intelligence, successful language learners are not necessarily strong in all the components of aptitude. In conclusion, success in second language learning depends on many factors; motivation, aptitude and intelligence are just a number of important ones. For motivation, it has been found that, motivated students are more successful than those not motivated. Motivation is the most important factor compared to intelligence and aptitude, though it has to be considered in light of other factors. This is because, as long as an individual is motivated, even if his IQ and aptitude are low, he will be able to succeed in language learning. In a nutshell, the greater the motivation, intelligence and aptitude levels of a student, the greater the chances of succeeding in learning a second language.
Metalinguistic awareness increased within the ESL students, therefore their phonics increased as well and they scored higher than some L1 students. Students who know multiple languages at an early age are proven to do better in both languages than students who only know one language.
There are many theories on how a person acquires a language. One can see that technology has influenced the way we input information as well as how we gather data based on these Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories. For example, today’s technology has helped us study the way the human brain works, and this is what our theories of SLA are based on. So it is evident that many of the SLA theories are based on the way the human brain works and how it develops. Moving on, this case study is based on two Spanish speakers who are English Language Learners (ELL) and how they were led to determine the SLA on the subject of their speech. The two Spanish speakers that are analyzed during this investigation are Elizabeth, a five-year old girl, and
Many people against second language learning argue that learning a second language is meaningless because it is never used after learning it and is soon forgotten. The problem is the country’s secondary language education methods. Rather than teaching at a young age, which they should, they make it mandatory at the high school level. Making children learn a second language at a young age is a better method because the earliest years of childhood are a critical period and at a later time, the brain’s ability to learn a new language is greatly diminished (Richards). Another problem is that most often, there isn’t enough repetition of what is learned in order for it to “sink in” to the memory of students. If taught at a young age and maintained throughout that students’ academic career, not...
Mostly children can adapt and/or learn a foreign language better than adults due to children developing language and skills spontaneously (Honigsfield, 2009). Second language learners have variables such as memory, perception, acquisition, conscious and subconscious learning styles, and recall. Even though, second language learners have those instilled variables, it is imperative for the teachers to guide learning and set the conditions of learning.
Williams, J. N. (1999). Memory, aptitude, and inductive learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21, 1–48
For the purposes of this paper, I have defined adulthood as including any person who is at or above the age of eighteen, because there is so little research on language learning in early adulthood versus middle or late adulthood. It is not possible to find studies about particular divisions of adulthood that have been verified by subsequent research trials, so I have included research about all ages of adulthood. Throughout this paper, I will discuss the major aspects of the body of research literature that separates adult second language learning from that of natural bilingual persons, including full immersion into the language, biological and neurological factors, the structure of both the native and second languages, age of acqui...
Language Acquisition, National Order Hypothesis, Input Hypothesis, Monitoring Hypothesis, and the Affective Filter Hypothesis. According to Krashen’s, language learning refers to a conscious effort to learn a new language while language acquisition is acquired through a subconscious level. The best example I have for understanding the language learning versus the language acquisition is through my personal experience. Before I entered elementary school, my first language acquisition was speaking Spanish because I was surrounded by family members and friends who communicated in Spanish only, and then when I entered the elementary school, I learned and acquired the English language through my social school environment and academic classes in English. I acquired the Spanish language subconsciously because it was a requirement for communicating with members of my family as well as my friends and the acquirement of the English language happened while communicating socially with friends at the school environment and finally I learned the English language through the educational academic classes taken while attending school through a conscious
In the twentieth century, the avoidance of the using L1 in classrooms dominated teachers’ minds; as well it was implemented in many policies and guidelines of language teaching (Cook, 2001). Thornbury (2010) listed a set of arguments against using L1 in L2 classrooms mainly for that the translation of L2 into another language will play negative effects on students’ learning process. He pointed out that the use of L1 will result learners to have a cognitive dependence on their mother tongue at the expense of developing independence TL learning. Although the two language systems are not equivalent in many aspects, students may have an awareness of the notion of equivalence of the two languages if translation serves to convey meanings. Some argue that the use of translation to convey the meaning of the TL is more efficient and more memorable. However, Thornbury (2010) sees the opposite. He stated that the simple and direct way of translation will make L2 knowledge less memorable since the process lacks mental efforts in working out meanings.
Children acquire their native language, which fall within a wide range of languages, at a very early stage of development. During development, a child begins to show signs of verbal communication, usually starting out as cooing, babbling, recognizable words, and later two or more word sentences. This occurrence is also seen in the development of second languages. Second language acquisition is the study of how second languages are typically developed. The process of acquiring our native language is very similar and influential to the development of a second language. The development of a second language has become increasingly popular throughout the world. Today more people are growing up with appropriate resources to acquire a second language, which can be seen from the vast numbers of bilingual individuals.
This paper first, argues why first language acquisition is fundamentally different from second language acquisition in light of the fact that acquiring first language is innate. Thereafter, this paper discuses fundamental distinction between first language acquisition and second language acquisition in terms of age, cognitive development and previous experience.
Long, M. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In W.Ritchie and T.Bhatia (eds.) Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (San Diego, CA: Academic Press), 413-68.
In addition to that, the writer will discuss the fact of neutral learning and language acquisition and finally how to engage brain-based learning approach to develop the process of second language learning.
Since the 1940s, new solutions to successful English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction have been discovered many times. Like bestseller novels, the latest hit pop songs, and blockbuster films, second-language theories and methodologies enjoy a few months or years in the spotlight and then fade away into oblivion due to many instructors not taking the chance to truly experiment with these instructional methods. There was always a “tried-and-true” methodology from an expert theorist, who may or may not have had first-hand experience learning a second language, to fall on. Douglas Brown, a renowned professor of San Francisco State University, notes that languages were “not being taught primarily to learn oral communication, but to learn for the sake of being ‘scholarly’ or…for reading proficiency” (15). Theories of second-language acquisition did not start to pop up until the instructional objective became oral competence and comprehension. New and effective methodologies of ESL classrooms are necessary in order for learners to obtain and understand the language and its culture; teachers need to consider their teaching style, each student’s learning style, and the classroom behavior, interests, and culture.
As the global communities migrate from their native home lands to new countries and regions, the need to learn a new language becomes an imminent requirement. Learning second language for an individual with not back ground to the language can be a serious proposition which can results in seriously straining the individual. This makes it very important to select a learning strategy very carefully to prevent complicating the learning process and also one which will help speed up the entire learning process (Bitchener 2007). With this in mind there are three main approaches linked to learning a 2nd language namely the behaviourist, Halliday’s and Chomsky’s approaches. Each of these adopts different learning theories but that all promote
Language acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language with natural communication while children are acquiring the foreign language. Children usually concerned with message which they are conveying and understand not with the form of utterances. These utterances are initiated by the acquired systems and the fluency of language is based on what we have ‘picked up’ through active communication. Both formal knowledge and conscious learning of the second language learning may be alternate to the output of the system, sometimes before and sometimes after the