Mini-Research Project

Individuals difference of motivation can affect the success in second language learning

Language Acquisition and Development

Erma Agus Setiyanngsih 2011120031 Section D English Department

Abstract:
One of the factors that can influence students in learning language is motivation. Sometimes you can find students who are actually smart but they cannot learn language perfectly since they did not have any eagerness to learn. However, there are those who are not really smart but have eagerness to learn can proceed more in learning language. Based on this fact that happens in the current situation, the researcher wants to know deeper about the role of motivation in helping students learn second language. The researcher wants to go deeper in knowing the participants perception about the role of motivation. Hence, the researcher conduct the study by using case study in case to know deeper about the case. After having the interview, the researcher finds out that most students feel the role of motivation in helping them learn the language. In conclusion, both external and internal motivation can influence the success of students in learning language since it can push the students to learn it.

1. Introduction
Some factors that can affects second language learning according to Yigiter (1998) are teacher, learner, and method respectively. However, if we look from the students perspective, there is one factor than can affect the students success on learning second language which is motivation. Motivation is a very important factor that affects second language learning. People with more intention or desire to learn can learn better than people who do not have a good desire to learn second language. This is the path where motivation plays its role since motivation itself means the desire to learn about something. It is also believed by Reece & Walker (1997) that stressed on how the students who have less intelligence but high motivation can reach a better goal than students who have high intelligence but low motivation in learning second language which is English as the second language. The researcher finds out a case which is very interesting, so, that the researcher finally decide this topic of individual difference focusing on motivation level. There is a group of students who studied English and being taught by teacher who always respect the effort of the students when working in the class. The teacher always encourages the students and being fair to assess the students. Hence, the students feel the nice atmosphere and finally can be more enthusiastic to learn the language itself. That is why the researcher wants to know more about the students respond on the way that the students feel about the motivation given by

the teacher and how the motivation can affect their success on learning second language learning. There are many reasons that push people to learn about second language. The reasons can be because the person is basically love to learn the particular second language so the desire is come from their own heart, or because of external aspect of being accepted in the world since English is the international language. The difference itself is proven by the classification of motivation that believed by McGregor (1967) who stated that motivation is classified into internal and external motivation. Internal motivation is the desire of doing something because of love and feeling of enjoyment that felt by people when doing something. Internal motivation of individuals in learning language is related to the case when people learn English because they simply enjoy in learning it. External motivation can be defined by the influence of external factor that can affect the desire of people in doing something. In this case, the definition of external motivation in learning language is when people is being influenced by other factor beside themselves to learn, for example like the case of teacher influence and learning environment. In this study the researcher wants to focus on the external factors of learning environment specifically the teacher influence in creating the learning environment that affect the learning of English as the second language.

1. Literature Review
The variable of the research is different level of external motivation of individuals and the success of learning English as the second language. In the study, the researcher already framed the focus of the research by studying about different level of external motivation of individuals. External motivation according to McGregor(1967) is the external factors that influence individuals to do something. In the study, the researcher focus on the way teacher develop learning environment to push the students motivation in learning language. There are many researches done that studied about the different level of individual motivation that can affect students success in learning second language. It is believed by Reece & Walker (1997) that people who have less intelligence but high motivation can be better in learning than those who have high intelligence but low motivation. This research result can be the first prove that actually each people have a different ability to be success in learning something measured by their level of motivation. This research is become the basic reason why the researcher believe that the role of the teacher in developing high motivation

learning environment can affect the success in learning English as the second language. It proved by the facts that high motivational students can get better result in learning something. The basic reason why people who have different motivation level can have different result in learning second language is because people who have high motivation is believed to be more enjoy and strive harder to get their goal in learning language Gardner (1993). Different level of individual motivation also can be measured by whether they have willingness to learn or not, and whether the external motivation can be internalized to improve their motivation or not. Based on the consideration, the result of the second language learning will be different if each individual have different level of motivation. According to McGregor (1967), motivation can be divided into two, internal and external motivation. Internal motivation is when people have interest and enjoyment so that they are encouraged by the interest and enjoyment itself, while external motivation is the influence outside the individual. In this study, the researcher focus on the extrinsic motivation of the students with the external help which is teacher as the person who give the students motivation in learning second language. Second language learning itself can be defined by learning a language which not the mother tongue of a person. The researcher specified the second language in this study is English as the second language. In the second language learning, there are a lot of factor that can affect the success of learning. One of the factors is motivation in each learners of the second language. The basic prove of the importance of motivation is the research that done by Gardner & Lambert (1959) who stated that motivation is a very important thing to be exist in second language learning. In the past research of Noels, Clment and Pelletier, (1999); Noels, (2001b) motivation in every individuals is different and it can be because of the learning environment of each individuals itself. However, they believe that the difference of motivation level in individuals can affect the success of the learning and believe that those who have higher motivation level can reach a better success in learning second language.

2. Methodology
1. Research design The researcher decided to choose case study with qualitative approach in this research. The basic reason why the researcher choose case study method is because the researcher wants to explore of unique case of a class with different and bad

perception towards learning language at the first time can change because the learning environment that provide them by high motivation. The most important thing is because the researcher wants to explore their perception toward their changes of attitude toward the language and how the learning environment can make them become change their attitude towards the language.

2. Research subjects The population of the research is university students in Jakarta Selatan, while the sample of the research is a class of Integrated English Language Learning 1, 2, and 3 in one of the university in Jakarta Selatan. The students of the class is the participants of the research that conducted by the researcher. In choosing the

participants, the researcher use criterion sampling which is choosing the participants based on the criteria of the research. In this research, the researcher focus on the unique condition of learning environment that represent extrinsic factor that influence individuals level of motivation. 3. Setting The setting of learning process is actually happened last year. However, the researcher still find it interesting on how they can be well motivated in learning language and why with their high motivation can affect in their success in learning English compared to those who are not well motivated. The researcher is collecting data start from 18th of July 2012 until 29th of July 2012 to know their respond towards the research topic. 4. Data collecting techniques The researcher use qualitative approach to collect data. There are some steps to collect data in this research:

Observation: The first step that taken is observation towards the learning environment of the participants. The researcher did not do direct observation to the learning environment. However, the researcher started to hear the well motivational class since 2011 year since the participants always telling people that they have nice class. However, the researcher can prove the curiosity to the same teacher but different subject of teaching. The researcher finds out that the teacher indeed always give the encourage and positive input to the learners.

Interview: The next step that done by the researcher is interview. The purpose of the interview is to see the difference of their level motivation before joining the class compared to the recent motivation after having one semester experience in well motivated class. The researcher also finds out the reason and strongest motivation that motivate them to learn English as the second language and the effect towards their current ability. The theory as the basic of the interview rubric is McGregor(1967) theory about external motivation and Noels, Clment and Pelletier, (1999); Noels, (2001b) that stated that individual difference of motivation is important to be known to determine the students success in learning language. 5. Data analysis The researcher use case study to explore and analyze the data that has been collected. The researcher try to explore the students result in the interview and match it with the previous research conducted that already stated in the literature review and see if there is different findings from the researcher. It is also can be said that the researcher use the previous research about the same topic as the background in analyzing the data.

3. Findings and discussion

a. Findings The interview resulted that the participants is actually have a different state of motivation before joining the class. All of the participants said that actually, they were afraid to use English to communicate with each other since they thought that their English is not that proficient. Their bad perception about English itself cause to their difficulty in learning English. Moreover, it cause their attitude toward it and makes them did not love English that much. However, after joining the class of IELL (Integrated English Language Learning) with well motivated learning environment. They gradually change their perception about learning English. The teacher gives them positive response and encouragement to their effort in learning English. There is a special rule that made in the class. The students who speaks Bahasa Indonesia or their local language during the class for 3 time, they are required to bring chocolate to be given to the class member. The researcher is curious with this method and asks whether they are pressured by this method, hence their motivation comes from the punishment method that used. However, they students answer that actually, there is no

problem to use such kinds of method since they admitted that the method is made by themselves to improve their own willingness to learn speaking English. The teacher never force them to instantly love English, however the teacher gives them her encouragement to the students to increase their self-esteem. The students also said that their class was changing them from nothing to something regarding to their English ability. They keep telling the researcher that by joining the class, they can feel the difference on their motivation in learning English than before. b. Discussion The goal of the research is to know that different level of motivation in each individual can affect their success in learning English as their second language. In this study, the researcher tried to compare the students current situation after joining the class and their states of attitude toward the language before joining the well motivated class. The researcher finds out that those who have low motivation in the case that their attitude toward the language can block them to really internalized the external factor like environment to the desire in learning language. Their success in learning language is not significantly increase if their motivation to learn is low. However, after they get external factors to motivate which is well motivated class. Their perception and attitude toward the language can gradually change to be better and their ability also better after they get encouragement from their teacher. It is match from what Reene & Walker (1997) who stated that actually their difference in motivation level can affect their success in learning language by saying that high motivational students is better in reaching their goal rather than those who have low motivation. However, in this study, the researcher focus on how the external motivation that can drive an individual to a different position before and after get the external factor influence is affecting the success in learning English as the second language.

4. Conclusion
The conclusion of the research is positive. It can be concluded that individual difference specifically in their different level of motivation is affecting their success in learning second language. External motivation of teacher and learning environment that become the focus of the researcher is proven as one of the factor that can affect the students attitude toward particular language and increase their self esteem to act more in learning the language. It also proven that actually, individuals can change their attitude to be success in

learning language by increasing their level of motivation. It is proven by the facts that the participants in the research develop their love to learn because of the influence of external factors that given by the well motivated learning environment and the teacher who conducted the process of learning. The most important thing that should be underlined as the result of the research is, students with low motivation to learn have less possibility to gain success rather than those who have high motivation. The unique things in this case study is because the researcher finds out that the different level of motivation also can be experienced by one person in a different time. They experienced to fail in learning and start to increase their level of motivation by finding something that can push them more like finding a good and wellmotivated learning environment.