Attitudes and Motivation in Second-Language Learning

Gardner, Robert C. And Wallace E. Lambert. 1972. Attitudes and Motivation in Second-Language Learning. Massachusetts: Newbury House.

“How is it that some people can learn a foreign language quickly and expertly while others, given the same opportunities to learn, are utter failures?”
(p. 1)

“Our interest has centered on this matter of individual differrences in skill with foreign languages, and in order to keep as many other influences as possible under control we have so far dealt mainly with adolescents in school settings learning one of the two most prestigious languages in the world, French and English.”
(p.1)

“When then is it to have a knack for learning a foreign language?”

“We have approached this absorbing question not as linguists or language teachers but as behavioral scientist—in particular, social psychologists—interested in the matter of learning. When looked at from a sociopsychological perspective the process of learning a second language takes on a special significance. Over and above aptitude, one would then anticipate that a really serious student of a foreign or second language who has an open, inquisitive, and unprejudiced orientation toward the learning task might very likely find himself becoming an acculturated member of a new linguistic and cultural community as he develops a mastery of that other group’s language.”
(p.2)

“Advancing towards biculturality in this manner could have various effects on different language learners. For some,the experience might be seen as enjoyable and broadening. For others, especially minority group members, it could be taken as an imposition, and learning the language would be accompanied by resentment and ill feeling.”
(p.2)

“A series of studies carried out by a small group of us at McGill University and University of Western Ontario over the past twelve years has been concerned with such topics, and the findings of these investigations have gradually permitted us to construct the beginnings of sociopsychological theory of second or foreign-language learing. This theory, in brief, maintains that the successful learner of a second language must be psychologically prepared to adopt various aspects of behavior which characterize members of another linguistic-cultural group. The learner’s ethnocentric tendencies and his attitudes toward the members of the other group are believed to determine how successful he will be, relatively, in learning the new language. His motivation to learn is thought to be determined by his attitudes toward the other group in particular and toward foreign people in general and by his orientation toward the learning task itself. The orientation is said to be instrumental in form if the purposes of language study reflect the more utilitarian value of lingustic achievement, such as getting ahead in one’s occupation. In contrast, the orientation is integrative if the student wishes to learn more about the other cultural community because he is interested in it in an open-minded way, to the point of eventually being accepted as a member of that other group. Variance in outlooks is recognized: some may be anxious to learn another language as a means of being accepted in another ethnolinguistic group because of dissatisfactions experienced in their own culture, while others may be as interested, in a friendly and inquisitive way, in the other culture as they are in their own. However, the more proficient one becomes in a second language, the more he may find his place in his original membership group modified since the new linguistic-culture group is likely to become for him something more than a mere reference group. It may, in fact, become for him something more than a mere reference group. It may, in fact, become a second membership group for him. Depending upon how he makes his adjustment to the two cultures, he may experience feelings of chagrin or regret as he loses ties in one group, mixed with the fearful anticipation of entering a new and somewhat strange group. Thus feeling of social uncertaintu or dissatisfaction which often characterize the immigrant and the bilingual may also, we believe, affect the serious student of a second language. “
(p.3)

MOTIF

Bagus, Lorens. 2005. Kamus Filsafat. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama.

KUTIPAN LANGSUNG

Motif

Inggris: Motive; dari Latin Motivus -- dari moveri, motum (menggerakkan, memindahkan)

Dorongan sadar dari suatu tindakan untuk merumuskan kebutuhan-kebutuhan tertentu manusia. Motif merupakan suatu pembenaran tertentu terhadap tindakan volisional manusia, yang menyinkapkan sikapnya terhadap tuntutan-tuntutan masyarakat. Motif memainkan peranan penting dalam menilai tindakan dan perbuatan manusia, karena pada motif-motif itulah tergantung arti subjektif dari tindakan ini atau itu bagi orang tertentu.

Key Concepts of Motivation and 2L Learning

Richards, Jack C., John Platt dan Heidi Platt. 1992. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Essex: Longman.

KUTIPAN LANGSUNG

Motivation
the factors that determine a person's desire to do something. In SECOND LANGUAGE and FOREIGN LANGUAGE learining, learning may be affected differently by different types of motivation. Two type of motivation are sometimes distinguished:
a. instrumental motivation: wanting to learn a language because it will be useful for certain "instrumental" goals, such as getting a job, reading a foreign newspaper, passsing an examination.
b. integrative motivation: wanting to learn a language in order to communicate with people of another culture who speak it.

Further reading Gardner & Lambert 1972
(Hal. 238)

Foreign Language
1. a language which is not a NATIVE LANGUAGE in a country. A foreign language is usually studied either for communication with foreigners who speak the language, or for reading printed materials in the language.
In North America applied usage, "Foreign Language" and "second Language" are often used to mean the same in this sense.
2. In British usage, a distiction is often made between foreign language and second language.

a. a foreign language is a language which is taught as a school subject but which is not used as a medium of instruction in schools nor as a lanugage of communication within a country (e.g. in government, business, or industry). english is described as a foreign language in France, Japan, China, etc.
b. a second language is a language which is not a native language in a country but which is widely used as a medium of communication (e.g. in education and in government) and which is ususally used alongside another language or languages. Englsih is described as a second language in countries such as Fiji, Singapore and Nigeria.

In both Britain and North America, the term "second language' would describe a native language in a country as learnt by people living there who have another FIRST LANGUAGE. English in the UK would be called the second language of immigrants and people whose first language is Welsh.

(Hal. 142-143)

Language Acquisition
the learning and development of a person language. The learning of a native or first language is called FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, and of a second or foreign language, SECOND LANGUAGE.The term "acquisition' is often preferred to "learning" because the latter term is sometimes lingked to a behaviorist theory of learning (see BEHAVIORISM). Language acquisition is studied by linguist, psychologist and applied linguist to enable them to understand the process used in learning a language, to help identify stages in the developmental process, and to give a better understanding of the nature of language. Techniques used include longitudinal studies of language learners as well as experimental approaches, and focus on the study of the development of phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and communicative competence.

Furthe reading Elliot 1981; Fletcher 1985

(Hal. 197)