As the international language, English has been taught in almost every part of the world. No wonder if people have finally come to realize that English is one of the foreign languages that they need to learn. In Indonesia, for example, the majority of the citizens learn English as their second language instead of their mother tongue, which is Bahasa Indonesia. Therefore, they learn English as much as they can from schools, colleges, or even from courses. Yet, the capability of each language learner is different from one to another; they need to be encouraged while they are learning English. The encouragement comes from their motivation on how they learn English. Indeed, English learners have different kinds of motivation in acquiring the exposure of English. Many psychologists believe that motivation is something significant to be considered. It refers to factors which initiate and direct behaviors, and to those that determine the intensity and the persistence of that behavior (Houston, 1985). As in Oxford dictionary motivation is largely defined as something that causes a person to act (Oxford Learner’s Dictionary: page 279). Moreover, Crawford describes motivation as factors which increase and decrease the vigor of an individual’s activity (Crawford, 1972). Thus, motivation in learning English can also be alluded to the stimulus of needs and desires on performing the required activities in learning English. Generally, motivation in learning English fits into three categories based on its atmosphere in learning: the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the integrative and instrumental motivation, and the personal and attributive motivation.
Firstly, the type of motivation focuses on the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Both of these types have potential roles to influence the language learners’ motivation. The intrinsic motivation is defined as doing of an activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for some separable consequences. When intrinsically motivated, a person is moved to act for the fun, or challenge entailed rather than because of external prods, pressures, or rewards (Ryan & Deci, 2000). In the context of learning English as a foreign language, the intrinsic motivation directly challenges the learners to get involved with English. Obviously, they do not want to obtain any kinds of rewards or prestige from their teachers as they intentionally learn English without being forced. For instance, one of the students in Intensive Course (IC) Class, whose name is Riza, always practices her English by reading many kinds of books in order to improve her English skills, particularly her vocabulary enrichment. However, the other students read English books only to fulfill the requirements of activities for enjoyment due to the compulsory course in the IC class. Although the intrinsic motivation is clearly an important type of motivation, most of the activities learners do are not, strictly speaking, intrinsically motivated. This is especially the case after early childhood, as the freedom to be intrinsically motivated becomes increasingly curtailed by social demands and roles that require individuals to assume responsibility for non-intrinsically interesting tasks. Indeed, the extrinsic motivation is largely constituted with something that is accomplished mainly because the learners want to obtain some rewards from the teachers, parents, and friends. Based on the theory of Harmer (2002), the extrinsic motivation is caused by any number of outside factors. Thus, the individual’s desire to learn English as a foreign language is relatively because of some pressures or rewards from the social environments. For example, a learner who does his/her English homework only because he/she feels terrified of receiving parental sanctions. He/she expects to be rewarded by their parents or teachers indicating that he/she is skillful in English. In short, these kinds of motivations can sway the willingness of the learners in studying English as a foreign language.
Secondly, let us highlight the integrative and the instrumental motivation of foreign language learners. These two types of motivations, indeed, play a prominent role in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). In the preceding point, we know that motivation in learning English has chiefly been identified as learners’ orientation with regard to the goals of maximizing the second language acquisition. Therefore, the term integrative motivation in the EFL setting, such as in Indonesia, can be defined as learning a language by which learners wish to identify themselves with the society or to become integrated into the community of the target language. As Gardner states that this type of motivation mostly deals with the learners’ desire to at least communicate or even assimilate with the group members whereby English is dominantly used as a communication device among others (Gardner, 1985). In other words, this form of motivation is typically addressed to someone who identifies with and values the target language and community, and who approaches the language study with the intention of entering that social environment. For instance, a friend of ours who is still studying in Senior High School is eager to learn English because she wants to fluently communicate with the foreigners whom she will meet during her vacation in Bali. Even, she is really interested in broadening her knowledge of American and British cultures by accumulating plenty of information from the on-line references. Surprisingly, she wants to have a young man from English-speaking countries so that she can have more spaces to make interactions with another language community. In contrast to this type of motivation, the instrumental motivation is generally characterized by the desire to obtain something practical or concrete from the study of a foreign language (Hudson, 2000). Instrumentally motivated learners are more likely to see the language learning as enabling them to achieve other useful things, but as having no special significance. Furthermore, Gardner (1985) underscores the importance of the instrumental motivation as the functional language learning because it would accomplish certain utilitarian goals, such as meeting the requirements for school or university graduations, applying for a job, achieving a higher social status and so on. In addition to this type of language learning motivation, Zhang Bensheng conducts a research on 70 outstanding students, including English and non-English majors from different universities in Wuhan, China. The results clearly demonstrate that the achievements of the students have a close relationship with the instrumental motivation in terms of furthering their future career (Wang, 2009). Apparently, a few students are basically more utilitarian-oriented in learning English. Let us take an example of a student in State University of Malang. The name of the student is Mahardika. He makes a decision to take English as his major because he wants to obtain a better job, especially in companies or joint ventures which have International links. However, he simply thinks that after he completes his study, he can make a living or at least subsidize himself with his own money from his expertise. By this example, instrumentally motivated learners will intensively engage in the language learning if they see it as having beneficial career prospects or society which enables them to apply the transactional language. Overall, the integrative and instrumental motivations are the essential elements of attaining successful goals in the process of learning English as a foreign language.
Thirdly, the type of motivation also corresponds with the attributive and personal motivation. In the language learning, these two different forms of motivation are acknowledged as a good unity in assembling the students’ language acquisition. The attributive motivation here means that the basic assumption of learning a language relates well to the need of achievements. Bernard Weiner (1990) strongly believes that when the achievement is aroused, we tend to attribute our performance towards the ability that we have. However, every single learner varies on the aspect of the ability in the process of learning a language. In this way, language learners have no tangible links between behavior and goal attainment, the tendency is actually to attribute their success from their capabilities. Furthermore, if a learner has obtained good skills in mastering English, he/she will believe in his/her own capabilities to exert control over aspects of their living. Sometimes, language learners, who have early been acquainted with English and have undergone adequate understanding about English as well as their native language, enthusiastically want to further their language mastery in a higher level. Indeed, they are attempted to gain lots of achievements as they can. Consequently, English learners establish their motivation as a part of actualizing their goals in order to acquire achievements on their own way. The learners who have already had the basis will be much easier to deal with English in a higher level. For example, my former friend, Farah, who is now studying in a private university in Pasuruan, picks English as her major because she thinks that English is her favorite subject and she is good in it. Therefore, she expands her study in a university to achieve a higher degree of her major. Indeed, her motivation in learning English is highly constructed due to the encouragement of attaining her achievements. On the other hand, Berson (1991) finds that several reasons suggested by the students for studying English can be grouped as the personal motivation. This category include motivational reasons, such as, pleasure at being able to read English books and enjoyment of entertainment in English including songs, podcasts, news, etc. In other words, English learners are naturally motivated in dealing with English as a matter of their interests. The interest is actually an enduring characteristic expressed by a relationship between a person and a particular activity. The interest occurs when learners’ needs, capacities, and skills are a good match for the demands offered by certain kinds of activities. Therefore, the interests of learners in an activity or in area of knowledge predict how well they process and comprehend the language learning. For instance, Satria Akbar, a student of English Department of State University of Malang, learns English mainly because he likes to listen to western songs. He thinks that his motivation in learning English is supported by his enjoyable activities in listening to music. Briefly speaking, the attributive and personal motivations determine the eagerness of learners in coping with English as a foreign language.
In summary, motivation increases an individual’s energy and activity level in learning English. In EFL settings, the types of motivations can be identified according to the atmosphere of learning environment: the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the integrative and instrumental motivation, and the personal and attributive motivation. Indeed, these types of motivations are inseparable from the practice of learning English as a foreign language. The unity of these motivations will encourage the learners to utilize themselves in a good learning atmosphere so that the learners approach the maximum goals in the language acquisition. As a recommendation, to construct the highest quality of motivation, the learners need to intensively strengthen their motivation every time they learn English. Teachers, however, must always control the motivational condition of their students to assess their learning progress. The more that teachers know about their students, and the more that they know about motivation, the more effective teaching will be and the more students will learn.
Sources:
Hornby, A. S. (Ed.). 1974. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Written by
Isna Rakhmawati
Muh. Khoirul Anwar
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