When I searched literature to review, I found more peer-reviewed articles using the key word “motivation” than “value” in language learning. I imagine there is a very close relation between the two and that if a student first finds value in a subject they will likely be more motivated and engaged to learn it. Therefore, literature related to motivation and engagement would give me useful hints and guidance toward increasing value in language learning.
Motivation and Learning
As a new teacher with many education courses still fresh in my mind, I’m inclined to believe motivation is the biggest factor in learning given my classroom experiences. I find myself thinking, “If I can just increase my students’ intrinsic motivation, they will learn more Spanish.” According to Doryei (1994), motivation is one of the main determinants in foreign language learning. I feel like it certainly played a role in my own experience learning Spanish. In my personal experience, I first wanted to learn Spanish in order to find waves in the tropical beaches of Mexico. Using the language and spending more time within the culture led me to want to better assimilate into it and adopt it as part of my own identity. Gardner (2001) might classify these motivations as instrumental (finding utility in a language), and integrative (using it to assimilate into a language community). With guidance from my AR team, I was reminded that my students might not share the same motivation and value in language learning that I do. And, my value placed in learning Spanish took time to develop into what it is now. It certainly wasn’t there in my first high school language classes.
I had never heard it proposed that motivation might not be a major predictor in foreign language learning. I was intrigued after finding a study by Taguchi (2006) that looked at 10th grade students, measuring their level of motivation with two questions. Language gains were measured and compared with the motivation level. Interestingly, this study suggested that motivation was not a major predictor for language learning gains. Stronger predictors of language gains were found in more implicit factors like the teachers’ beliefs in their students’ potential abilities and their expectations of student achievement. This was a very important article for me. I learned that I am the biggest determinant in the effectiveness of my practice. Also, students’ learning is greatly influenced by what I believe they are capable of and the norms and expectations I help set for them. A new or first-year teacher can easily start off expecting too little or too much from their students. This changed my view about students’ motivation in my classroom.
I must be mindful and reflective of my role in facilitating students’ language learning gains. I am the one who is responsible for planning effective learning activities which at the same time are aimed at fostering students’ motivation and value placed in learning. After all, my needs assessment suggested that at least on the surface, my students seem to think they value learning Spanish. But do they really feel value to learn Spanish in actual classroom situations? I wondered if my lessons within the classroom could be failing to create that feeling within them.
Motivation is Social and Emotional
In another article, Negueruela-Azarola (2011) looks at the fluid, emotionally based, and socially constructed nature of motivation. The article acknowledges that motivation has previously been viewed in a positivistic manner, as either a cause for learning or as an effect of it. Either motivation is pre-formed to influence learning or activities are performed to influence motivation. Surely more engaging activities could increase motivation by their nature alone, regardless of pre-existing value placed on learning. Do I aim to first increase value in learning Spanish in order to increase student motivation during classroom activities? Or, should I aim to design engaging and meaningful activities that themselves increase student value and motivation? The author offers a third approach based on the sociocultural theory, that language learning motivation is inherently influenced by social factors and can be viewed in terms of individual emotional significance. Again, maybe students could benefit by feeling, or placing emotional significance on the value of learning Spanish. Social factors would undoubtedly influence their doing so. This means that their individual self is influenced by their communal social self through communication and language itself. Therefore language learning and motivation is a personal experience to be looked at qualitatively.
In the study by Negueruela-Azarola (2011), he also interviewed a former student about her motivation in a tele-collaborative Spanish class involving internet communication with native speakers. The student never seemed to be very engaged and didn’t exactly perform well in the class, but surprised the teacher/researcher at the end of the semester when she spontaneously expressed how the course had changed her perception of the Spanish language and culture. The interview suggests that the student’s reasons for continuing in language classes even though they were difficult for her was the social and transformative aspect of the classes and the language. The idea of actually communicating with those from another culture, one day studying abroad, and being transformed by those experiences was what excited her. The author views this transformative aspect of language learning as a key issue in understanding motivation.
The issue is to create pedagogical spaces for questioning so as to capture motivations as emotional significance. That is indeed the goal of education: to create meanings that we did not know we needed so as to find new avenues of personal growth. From a sociocultural point of view, it is not about learning, but about human development. (p. 190)
The pedagogical spaces for questioning can be found when learning about another culture and comparing it to your own, or when meeting a person who speaks another language, and feeling a social emotional urge to interact with them. Motivation and value in language learning are fostered through having a need to use language to exchange ideas in order to communicate, learn from another, and grow individually.
Learning about the perceived value in a tele-collaborative class from a student who didn’t appear to be engaged or confident in the class inspired me to add a similar component to my class and future projects. It’s exciting to think that students can find such value in personal growth and that I might help them realize this through my Spanish class. This relates to my omoi as a Spanish teacher directly.
Language Learning and Community
A study by Jorge (2011) assesses the long-term value of a community based Spanish program that had students immersed Spanish speaking environments with families her in the U.S. The researcher reports that even nine years later, respondents of a survey claim to still remember well the Mexican American families that hosted them during the course. The data suggested that students developed a long-lasting appreciation for the power of a second language through meaningful conversation, strong personal relationships, and involvement in constructing their own learning experience.
This article reinforced my belief that if I had students make personal connections to native speakers in our own community, I might be able to instill in them a desire to learn Spanish on their own, outside the classroom, and to continue to do so after our short semester together. Community interaction aligned with fore mentioned social and emotional aspects of learning by incorporating personal relationships.
To start my Phase 1, I wondered how students’ perceptions of the Spanish speaking community and their relation to it might change through a community service-learning project. For example, I could have my students from my classroom interview Spanish speakers in our own school community to address a current student health issue. My reasoning is that this would not only give them a real world application of learning Spanish, but also connect with their emotional side when interacting and forming a relationship with a fellow human and member of the community. Ideally, this could help students become more engaged in Spanish learning and reinforce their learning in a personally meaningful way.
Language and Identity
The issue of learners’ identity was discussed as a motivating factor in other literature that I reviewed. One article gives an overview of action research conducted to explore the relationship between individual self-images, socially constructed self-images, and language-learning motivation (Sampson, 2012). The research was conducted in an English as a foreign language university context, using 3 cycles over the course of a 15-week semester. The findings suggest that initially asking students about their ideal language self-images might help the teacher to create more motivating lessons through self-enhancement activities. The article provides context-dependent evidence that supporting students to focus their new language learning self-images can increase motivation and improves students’ recognition of self-regulation in language learning.
Students gave quantitative and qualitative data where they imagined how the language use was a part of their identity or how it could be in the future. The following is an interesting response from a student that reflected how they were integrating the target language into their self-image or identity:
"Do you want something to drink?" is like a textbook, it’s not me. But, ‘Want something to drink?’ is like I’m actually saying it. That’s like my image now. Like…it’s me. (p. 331)
Students showed that through the course they now seemed to be studying English for themselves instead of for someone else.
“I fell [feel] the language has changed from just what I study to my OWN language” (p.331)
It seemed that students were placing more personal value in language learning the more the target language became a part of their own identity. I learned from the literature that if I could change how the students see themselves in relation to the Spanish speaking community, I could maybe change the way they are motivated to learn. Perhaps they would be motivated to expand their self-image as well as their linguistic abilities. I wondered if personal reflections and journaling could be a crucial part of helping the students express and explore their possibly changed perceptions in identity.
Summary
To summarize what I learned from the literature review:
Motivation and Learning
As a new teacher with many education courses still fresh in my mind, I’m inclined to believe motivation is the biggest factor in learning given my classroom experiences. I find myself thinking, “If I can just increase my students’ intrinsic motivation, they will learn more Spanish.” According to Doryei (1994), motivation is one of the main determinants in foreign language learning. I feel like it certainly played a role in my own experience learning Spanish. In my personal experience, I first wanted to learn Spanish in order to find waves in the tropical beaches of Mexico. Using the language and spending more time within the culture led me to want to better assimilate into it and adopt it as part of my own identity. Gardner (2001) might classify these motivations as instrumental (finding utility in a language), and integrative (using it to assimilate into a language community). With guidance from my AR team, I was reminded that my students might not share the same motivation and value in language learning that I do. And, my value placed in learning Spanish took time to develop into what it is now. It certainly wasn’t there in my first high school language classes.
I had never heard it proposed that motivation might not be a major predictor in foreign language learning. I was intrigued after finding a study by Taguchi (2006) that looked at 10th grade students, measuring their level of motivation with two questions. Language gains were measured and compared with the motivation level. Interestingly, this study suggested that motivation was not a major predictor for language learning gains. Stronger predictors of language gains were found in more implicit factors like the teachers’ beliefs in their students’ potential abilities and their expectations of student achievement. This was a very important article for me. I learned that I am the biggest determinant in the effectiveness of my practice. Also, students’ learning is greatly influenced by what I believe they are capable of and the norms and expectations I help set for them. A new or first-year teacher can easily start off expecting too little or too much from their students. This changed my view about students’ motivation in my classroom.
I must be mindful and reflective of my role in facilitating students’ language learning gains. I am the one who is responsible for planning effective learning activities which at the same time are aimed at fostering students’ motivation and value placed in learning. After all, my needs assessment suggested that at least on the surface, my students seem to think they value learning Spanish. But do they really feel value to learn Spanish in actual classroom situations? I wondered if my lessons within the classroom could be failing to create that feeling within them.
Motivation is Social and Emotional
In another article, Negueruela-Azarola (2011) looks at the fluid, emotionally based, and socially constructed nature of motivation. The article acknowledges that motivation has previously been viewed in a positivistic manner, as either a cause for learning or as an effect of it. Either motivation is pre-formed to influence learning or activities are performed to influence motivation. Surely more engaging activities could increase motivation by their nature alone, regardless of pre-existing value placed on learning. Do I aim to first increase value in learning Spanish in order to increase student motivation during classroom activities? Or, should I aim to design engaging and meaningful activities that themselves increase student value and motivation? The author offers a third approach based on the sociocultural theory, that language learning motivation is inherently influenced by social factors and can be viewed in terms of individual emotional significance. Again, maybe students could benefit by feeling, or placing emotional significance on the value of learning Spanish. Social factors would undoubtedly influence their doing so. This means that their individual self is influenced by their communal social self through communication and language itself. Therefore language learning and motivation is a personal experience to be looked at qualitatively.
In the study by Negueruela-Azarola (2011), he also interviewed a former student about her motivation in a tele-collaborative Spanish class involving internet communication with native speakers. The student never seemed to be very engaged and didn’t exactly perform well in the class, but surprised the teacher/researcher at the end of the semester when she spontaneously expressed how the course had changed her perception of the Spanish language and culture. The interview suggests that the student’s reasons for continuing in language classes even though they were difficult for her was the social and transformative aspect of the classes and the language. The idea of actually communicating with those from another culture, one day studying abroad, and being transformed by those experiences was what excited her. The author views this transformative aspect of language learning as a key issue in understanding motivation.
The issue is to create pedagogical spaces for questioning so as to capture motivations as emotional significance. That is indeed the goal of education: to create meanings that we did not know we needed so as to find new avenues of personal growth. From a sociocultural point of view, it is not about learning, but about human development. (p. 190)
The pedagogical spaces for questioning can be found when learning about another culture and comparing it to your own, or when meeting a person who speaks another language, and feeling a social emotional urge to interact with them. Motivation and value in language learning are fostered through having a need to use language to exchange ideas in order to communicate, learn from another, and grow individually.
Learning about the perceived value in a tele-collaborative class from a student who didn’t appear to be engaged or confident in the class inspired me to add a similar component to my class and future projects. It’s exciting to think that students can find such value in personal growth and that I might help them realize this through my Spanish class. This relates to my omoi as a Spanish teacher directly.
Language Learning and Community
A study by Jorge (2011) assesses the long-term value of a community based Spanish program that had students immersed Spanish speaking environments with families her in the U.S. The researcher reports that even nine years later, respondents of a survey claim to still remember well the Mexican American families that hosted them during the course. The data suggested that students developed a long-lasting appreciation for the power of a second language through meaningful conversation, strong personal relationships, and involvement in constructing their own learning experience.
This article reinforced my belief that if I had students make personal connections to native speakers in our own community, I might be able to instill in them a desire to learn Spanish on their own, outside the classroom, and to continue to do so after our short semester together. Community interaction aligned with fore mentioned social and emotional aspects of learning by incorporating personal relationships.
To start my Phase 1, I wondered how students’ perceptions of the Spanish speaking community and their relation to it might change through a community service-learning project. For example, I could have my students from my classroom interview Spanish speakers in our own school community to address a current student health issue. My reasoning is that this would not only give them a real world application of learning Spanish, but also connect with their emotional side when interacting and forming a relationship with a fellow human and member of the community. Ideally, this could help students become more engaged in Spanish learning and reinforce their learning in a personally meaningful way.
Language and Identity
The issue of learners’ identity was discussed as a motivating factor in other literature that I reviewed. One article gives an overview of action research conducted to explore the relationship between individual self-images, socially constructed self-images, and language-learning motivation (Sampson, 2012). The research was conducted in an English as a foreign language university context, using 3 cycles over the course of a 15-week semester. The findings suggest that initially asking students about their ideal language self-images might help the teacher to create more motivating lessons through self-enhancement activities. The article provides context-dependent evidence that supporting students to focus their new language learning self-images can increase motivation and improves students’ recognition of self-regulation in language learning.
Students gave quantitative and qualitative data where they imagined how the language use was a part of their identity or how it could be in the future. The following is an interesting response from a student that reflected how they were integrating the target language into their self-image or identity:
"Do you want something to drink?" is like a textbook, it’s not me. But, ‘Want something to drink?’ is like I’m actually saying it. That’s like my image now. Like…it’s me. (p. 331)
Students showed that through the course they now seemed to be studying English for themselves instead of for someone else.
“I fell [feel] the language has changed from just what I study to my OWN language” (p.331)
It seemed that students were placing more personal value in language learning the more the target language became a part of their own identity. I learned from the literature that if I could change how the students see themselves in relation to the Spanish speaking community, I could maybe change the way they are motivated to learn. Perhaps they would be motivated to expand their self-image as well as their linguistic abilities. I wondered if personal reflections and journaling could be a crucial part of helping the students express and explore their possibly changed perceptions in identity.
Summary
To summarize what I learned from the literature review:
1. Student motivation is an important factor in learning but must be coupled with effective activity planning ways to help students find value in their learning.
2. Language learning can be motivated socially and emotionally by connecting with others and feeling a transformation of the self.
3. Transforming and expanding one’s self-image and identity is an important factor in student motivation and language learning.
4. Interacting and building relationships within the Spanish speaking community can have lasting effects on language learning beyond the classroom.
2. Language learning can be motivated socially and emotionally by connecting with others and feeling a transformation of the self.
3. Transforming and expanding one’s self-image and identity is an important factor in student motivation and language learning.
4. Interacting and building relationships within the Spanish speaking community can have lasting effects on language learning beyond the classroom.