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MOTIVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kamo Chilingaryan1

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rimma Gorbatenko2
1
Peoples’ Friendship University, Russia
2
Peoples’ Friendship University, Russia

ABSTRACT
Motivation is a thing that can increase students’ determination and interest in language
learning. Working in non-native environment, but bearing in mind that our task is
teaching a foreign language, we see some important goals of motivation in:
• Fulfilling university requirements
• Improving one’s education
• Improving critical and creative thinking skills
• Increasing job opportunities and salary potential
• Increasing global understanding, etc.
A teacher should put a strong focus on the student’s motives to be able to accommodate
them. To motivate learners’ attention should be drawn to the definition of motivation.
According to the Webster’s, to motivate means the act or process of giving someone a
reason for doing something : the act or process of motivating someone, the condition of
being eager to act or work; the condition of being motivated; a force or influence that
causes someone to do something.
The paper looks through the reasons for motivation growth of law students at Peoples’
Friendship University of Russia in learning legal language as part of LSP. The objective
of the paper was to establish a link between the successes in English and to obtain
professional knowledge via participation in different international events. The authors
have traced the change of attitude and the success of the team as well as his/her insight.
Working in non-native environment, but bearing in mind that our task is teaching a
foreign language, we see some important goals of motivation in: fulfilling university
requirements, improving one’s education, improving critical and creative thinking skills,
increasing job opportunities and salary potential, increasing global understanding, and
some others.
To be able to find the student’s motives a teacher should also see significant gains in it.
The Webster states that to motivate means the act or process of giving someone a reason
for doing something. A teacher needs to find the student’s motives to be able to
accommodate them.
Keywords: motivation, second language, goal, persistence, success.

INTRODUCTION
The rapidly changing world and labour market demands professionals. Now when
English is not a foreign language but a means of communication there has been a great
SGEM 2015 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts

increase in language learning and teaching. However, we have witnessed a little

indifference in LSP by part of the students.
A highly motivated individual will enjoy learning the language, want to learn the
language, and strive to learn the language. "An integratively oriented learner would
likely have a stronger desire to learn the language, have more positive attitudes towards
the learning situation, and be more likely to expend more effort in learning the
language”. [1] (Gardner, 1985).
Figure 1. Success in the task [2] (under Littlejohn, Andrew)

The figure shows that motivation and ability are interconnected. "Without knowing
where the roots of motivation lie, how can teachers water those roots?" [3] (Oxford &
Shearin, 1994-p.15). Ngeow, Karen and Yeok-Hwa, (1998) mention that motivation
determines the extent of the learner's active involvement and attitude toward learning.
[4] Motivating consists of a goal, efforts, desire, energy, active involvement, and
persistence. To understand a learner’s motivation, some points should be underlined.
They are the learner’s natural interest: (intrinsic satisfaction = outside the person), the
teacher /institution / employment: (extrinsic reward = internal to the person), success in
the task: (combining satisfaction and reward).
Behavioral sources of motivational needs are to obtain desired rewards and avoid
unpleasant consequences, as well as to initiate positive models. Biological sources
activate senses, increasing, decreasing stimulation, while affective sources increase, or
decrease affective dissonance, making us feel good and decreasing the feeling of bad
mood. Cognitive sources, as the name suggests, maintain attention to something
interesting, develop meaning or understanding, eliminate threat or risk. Conative
sources help an individual to obtain personal dream, take control of one’s life. And
lastly, spiritual sources contribute to understanding the purpose of one’s life.
Behaviorists explain motivation in terms of external stimuli and reinforcement. The
physical environment and actions of the teacher are of prime importance. Cognitivists
explain motivation in terms of a person's active search for meaning and satisfaction in
life. Thus, motivation is internal. Weiner (1990) points out that behavioral theories tend
to focus on extrinsic motivation (i.e., rewards) while cognitive theories deal with
intrinsic motivation (i.e., goals). [5]
Gardner & Lambert (1959, 1972) concluded that the learner's attitude toward the target
language and the culture of the target-language-speaking community play a crucial role
in language learning motivation. [6] They introduced the notions of instrumental and
integrative motivation. The first one refers to the learner's desire to learn a language for
utilitarian purposes, whereas the latter refers to the desire to learn a language to
integrate successfully into the target language community. (The second motivation is the
one we are going to speak about). (This is Socio-Educational Model)
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Vroom (1964) states that learners' motivation to acquire a second language is

determined by: Effort, Valence (perception of degree of attractiveness of goals/ its
value), Expectancy (perception of the probability of attaining the goals),
Ability, (appraisal of their ability to achieve the goals), Instrumentality
(connection of success and reward). [7]
Gardner also states that Second Language Acquisition (SLA) motivation is based on the
definition of motivation as "the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn
the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this
activity" (Gardner, 1985). [1]

HOW WE STARTED
Within many years SLA has not been a target issue in many Soviet, and then Russian
institutions. This phenomenon might be explained by the lack of incentives for
graduates. Impossibility to work abroad or in a joint venture company made the students
unwilling to master a language they would not need in their career. This belief was not
easy to overcome even after the Soviet collapse and change of the world. Peoples’
Friendship University of Russia has always been in the vanguard of language teaching
and yet, we experienced this negative attitude to SLA.
Self-determination was a key factor for many learners: it proposes that a person must be
able to initiate and regulate, through personal choice, the effort expended to complete a
task in order for the task to be intrinsically rewarding. Intrinsic motivation here meant
the performance of a task for its own sake. It values rewards gained through the process
of task completion. At the same time, extrinsic motivation was in the pursuit of some
reward external to the completion of the task, such as good grades. This autonomy
theory is believed to undermine intrinsic motivation; individuals will often lose their
intrinsic interest in a task if the task is seen as a means to an end.
Trying to involve the students in many activities the foreign languages department at
then Law Faculty of PFUR carried out some research to identify the extent to which we
could motivate the students. Some works of well-known scholars in the sphere of
motivational theories were studied for that purpose. It was not easy to distinguish which
theory best matched our needs, but in the end some decisions were made. We organized
a few student conferences, devoted to legal aspects, as well as to translate methodology
and practice. The department held the conferences annually, but they were of a kind of
haven for those who were mostly interested in only getting good grades.
Crookes & Schmidt (1991) identified four areas of Second Language (SL) motivation:
a) the micro level, b) the classroom level, c) the syllabus level, and d) a level involving
factors from outside the classroom. [8]
a) The micro level involves the cognitive processing of L2 input.
b) The classroom level includes the techniques and activities used in the classroom.
c) The syllabus level refers to the choice of content presented and can influence
motivation by the level of curiosity and stimulating students’ interest.
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d) Factors from outside the classroom involve informal interaction in the L2 and long-
term factors.
According to Crookes & Schmidt motivation to learn a language has both internal and
external features. As Internal (Attitudinal) factors we can be mention Interest in L2
(based on attitudes, experience, background knowledge); Relevance (perception that
personal needs - achievement, affiliation, power - are being met by learning the L2;
Expectancy of success or failure; Outcomes (extrinsic or intrinsic rewards felt by the
learner). [8]
As External (Behavioral) factors, three other points are to be stated: decision to choose;
pay attention to, and engage in L2 learning; persistence, high activity level.

WHAT INFLUENCES MOTIVATION?

One of the theories that the department widely used was Oxford and Shearin’s (1994)
[3] theory. It includes six factors that affect motivation in language learning:
 attitudes (i.e., sentiments toward the learning community and the target
language);
 beliefs about self (i.e., expectancies about one's attitude to succeed, self-efficacy,
and anxiety);
 goals (perceived clarity and relevance of learning goals as reasons for learning);
 involvement (i.e., extent to which the learner actively and consciously
participates in the language learning process);
 environmental support (i.e., extent of teacher and peer support, and the
integration of cultural and outside-of-class support into learning experience);
 personal attributes (i.e., aptitude, age, sex, and previous language learning
experience).
All these six factors have been taken for consideration when the department decided to
renew its targets and purposes in learners’ motivation. Language acquisition is the
result of interplay between cognitive mechanism and environmental conditions. Thus
understanding and creating optimal language learning environments becomes a primary
concern of the language teacher. Teachers can observe circumstances under which
learners acquire language and are able to make adjustments toward creating optimal
learning conditions. When designing learning activities, the language teacher should
remember that learners must be given opportunities to participate as language users in
multiple contexts as language learning focuses on both the accuracy and appropriateness
of application in various contexts of use. These opportunities will result in learners'
increased motivation and awareness of the intricacies of language use.

Learners should recognize a real need to accomplish learning goals that are relevant.
This prepares them for the complexities of real-world tasks that require them to use
language skills and knowledge that have to be continually transferred.
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The involvement and environmental support were easier to improve and change than
attitudes, beliefs and goals. Personal attributes were a factor that we did not give a
serious consideration, especially age, sex, even more – national origin. The above
mentioned as difficult factors needed some improvements, including psychological
support by some of the professionals, able to carry this type of work. Students required
someone who they could trust and who they would follow.

Research, carried out then, showed a great disproportion between those who were
confident in their targets and their counterparts.

Figure 2. Five-year review of motivation growth at foreign languages department

The table shows the increase of motivated students more than threefold, and decrease of
non-motivated students fourfold. At the same time the number of indifferent students
have lessened more than twice.
To come to these objectives the foreign languages department suggested a more
thorough selection of participants for international events. The breaking point could be
seen in 2013. In 2010, some enthusiastic students concluded to participate in
international events. The department welcomed this desire and the authors of this issue
were designated to support the team. Compared to the earlier motivation of the students
when the main desire of the learners was to get good marks at the exam and make a
good impression on the examiners, these students were full of determination. At the
start, the motivation of the students was not high as they were not very certain that
professors or teachers might be able to assist them. After consultation with the teachers
they discovered some enthusiasts to assist them. Two of the volunteers were the authors
of this issue. It was Willem C. Vis Annual International Commercial Arbitration Moot
Court in Vienna that became the breakthrough point.

WHAT IS MOTIVATION?
Motivation is a desire to achieve a goal, combined with the energy to work towards that
goal. The word motivation makes us think of a goal, effort, desire, energy, active
involvement, persistence. A teacher must know the sources of motivation to be able to
support the learner’s desire for success.
The learner’s intrinsic satisfaction is number one. It is based on the learner’s natural
interests. Then comes the extrinsic reward: the teacher/institution/employment.
SGEM 2015 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts

Satisfaction and reward together make the success in the task. [9]. "To a very large
degree, students expect to learn if their teachers expect them to learn." [10] This very
fact proves that both the teachers and students should be co-motivated.
Though in some research they might have examined the gender, we did not take it into
consideration, to say nothing of religious affiliation. These are among internal factors,
affecting students’ motivation in second language acquisition. (Some other factors are
age, interests and curiosity, competence, native language proficiency).
As for external factors, it is teachers who encourage, give feedback, rewards, classroom
atmosphere, role models and home support
As a matter of fact, people like doing what they do well, and are therefore more likely
to do it again, and put in more effort. Thus, those students who develop an image of
themselves as ‘no good at English’ will simply avoid situations which tell them what
they already know – that they aren’t any good at English. It can lead to a downward
spiral of a self- perception of low ability – low motivation – low effort – low
achievement – low motivation – low achievement." [2]
Gardner describes core second language learning motivation as a construct composed of
three characteristics:
• the attitudes towards learning a language (which he called affect),
• the desire to learn the language (want) and
• motivational intensity (effort).
It is worth mentioning that in the classroom students who do well in the language are
more confident than those who are not. The feeling of failure can lead to a downward
spiral of a self- perception of low ability – low motivation – low effort – low
achievement – low motivation – low achievement.
You cannot motivate your students to work hard and have long-running objectives if
you are not a motivated teacher. Among many things, we agree with Dornyei [11] who
suggests encouraging students to set attainable sub-goals, and increasing the
attractiveness of course content. In his "Ten Commandments for Motivating Language
Learners” Dornyei (1998:131) suggests setting a personal example with your own
behaviour, creating a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere in the classroom, developing a good
relationship with the learners, increasing the learner's linguistic self-confidence, …
familiarizing learners with the target language culture.
Teachers can make the L2 classroom a welcoming, positive place where psychological
needs are met and where language anxiety is kept to a minimum.
At first there were 5 students wishing to participate in Willem C Vis Moot Court in
2011. We faced a problem: there was very little information about the procedure. Soon,
having written a hundred page memoranda of the Claimant and Respondent, the team
started its preparation for the games. To be able to control all the pleadings, we started
using a camera and making video of every event the team participated. Later there were
discussions and arguments, corrections and the brushing of English.
Teachers can urge students to develop their own intrinsic rewards through positive self-
talk, guided self-evaluation, and mastery of specific goals, rather than comparison with
other students. Thus, you promote a sense of greater self-efficacy, increasing motivation
to continue learning the L2.
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Keller (1983) develops a model of ARCS where the capital letters stand for
[A]ttention strategies for stimulating and sustaining curiosity and interest;
[R]elevance strategies that link to learners' needs, interests, and motives;
[C]onfidence strategies that help students develop a positive expectation for successful
achievement; and
[S]atisfaction strategies that provide extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement for effort. [12]
The first participation of the team was a great success, bringing it the 194th place
among about 300 teams worldwide.
Now when all four points of ARCS has been made from the start-up, the next year
brought even more students to the team and a bigger problem for the coaches: the
necessity to choose the best. Now we saw a competition among the participants,
devotion to hard work. The previous desire to get just a good mark now was not
essential. There were 8 students and only 5 of them must have been chosen for Vienna.
The result of team was better – the 174th place.
Ngeow, Karen Yeok-Hwa (1998) proposes encouraging learners to take ownership in
learning and promote intentional cognition or mindfulness to learning in various
contexts. [4] By encouraging, we make learners take ownership of the learning
assignment by letting them identify and decide for themselves relevant learning goals.
By promoting intentional cognition, learners recognize the relevance and transferability
of different learning skills or knowledge.
2013 saw 13 students and 154th place. One of the team members was noticed by Baker
and McKenzie who offered him a job. It is now that we witnessed a boom in LSP
learning. Students from different courses and different language level were ready to do
their utmost to become the team member. This brought the coaches a bulk of
difficulties, as almost each participant could have become a team member but the
requirements to the candidate were also very high. Not every student was able to carry
out the pace. Hard work made some candidates stand away.
Undoubtedly, this competition could not but foster some tension among the participants;
nevertheless, there are some tips to be used:
 Encourage and support students at all times but especially when they are
struggling or lacking confidence in certain areas.
 Be energetic and enthusiastic about what you are teaching,
 Create an atmosphere in which students are not afraid to make mistakes and are
encouraged to take risks.
 Avoid tension-causing strategies such as surprise quizzes, overly competitive
activities, putting students in front of their peers with no warning or chance for
preparation, and correcting errors in a negative, accusatory fashion.
Through pre-planned and spontaneous activities, provide opportunities for interaction in
the target language in and outside the language learning environment.
You might experience loss of motivation as a reluctance to undertake an assignment or
project, or attend a lecture or tutorial. Because of loss of motivation you may be
thinking about withdrawing from a subject, or taking leave from university for a
semester, for a year, or ‘forever’. The most common reasons for loss of motivation are a
change or accumulated changes, a negative experience or several negative experiences.
Specific contributing factors might be: a low mark or a series of low marks, getting
SGEM 2015 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts

behind with a program of study, responsibilities, other than study, taking priority, feeling
isolated, study becoming irrelevant to short term or long term goals, a mismatch
between the knowledge, beliefs or interests which a student has and the ideas with
which they are coming in contact, the difficulty of subject material. In our case it was a
desire to leave the team because the members felt embarrassed after some politically
lead assessment that was made in 2014, though in 2014 another former participant
became Baker and McKenzie employee. The whole atmosphere was against the Russian
teams, which we fully experienced.
The connecting link between losing motivation and finding it is the search. The search
involves a number of steps: Give yourself time, Work with all of you, Focus on goals,
Make study a priority, Feel good about yourself, Take care of your health, Visualization,
Build on your knowledge.
In 2015 the coaches suffered hard time before they could get rid of some negative
impact of the previous year. Now the number of candidates was 20 people. We focused
on goals where students needed to know their short-term goals, long-term goals and
which goals have priority. Students may have many goals and aim to achieve many of
them. They may, however have only sufficient time and energy to work towards
achieving one or two of these goals. So the question of what goals are most important to
them is an important step in becoming motivated about their study. It is where the
helping hand of the teachers and educators is necessary.
For students feeling good and recognizing achievements may be a key factor in finding
motivation. When a student has a sense of well-being and self-esteem, he/she can tackle
difficult or uninteresting tasks with a positive outlook.
Motivation is the force that causes you to take action. To motivate, you should
understand a) who are you doing it for? (For myself OR parents or teachers), b) what
are you doing it for? (To gain benefits OR avoid unpleasantness). People are most
successful when working toward positive outcomes on things they find personally
fulfilling. If you do not plan where you are heading, you might end up in an occupation
or life style that is not very satisfying.

DISCUSSION (FROM INSIGHT)

Taking into consideration that foreign language teachers are linguists and not lawyers,
we assume the role of running the class, improving students’ speaking, listening and
writing comprehensions, adjusting them to the on-going changes in legal language, at
the same time giving them some freedom of choice while making presentations. The
environment itself is fully devoted to the main goal – motivating students to speak
English, think English, and act English. Speaking the truth, the last two aspects are quite
difficult. L1 differs from L2, Common law and Continental law contribute to
encountering of difficulties.
At PFUR, the department of foreign languages considers that using advanced way of
education as one of the means of motivating students. We welcome the so-called “on-
spot” tasks when students are invited to analyse a concrete case from legal practice
related to the textbook unit from International Legal English Course book by
Cambridge (ILEC) and/or from other sources (see British and Irish Legal Information
Institute, http://www.bailii.org/).
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The same way we train our PFUR team for the International Willem C. Vis Moot Courts
on Commercial Arbitration. Any position, either Claimant or Respondent is first
prepared, checked, discussed. Then the team gathers, and a Claimant/Respondent
presents his/er position in front of his/er colleagues and the camera. Both the teacher
and the team members, not to say anything about the camera, fix mistakes. Information
perception, identification of key items, reprocessing, argumentation, self-evaluation,
team-based discussion are the key stages that students pass through while combining
their psychological abilities to evaluate the audience and counter partners,
understanding legal features of the case and the adversarial party’s position, trying to
make their best in terms of using foreign language for professional purposes. Thus, both
cognitive and social abilities should be motivated.
Each period requires particular techniques to motivate students at each stage of the
relevant activities, including visual effects, special attention to gestures, other
participants´ physical position and movements, questions, structured debates within
focus groups, etc. Nonetheless, it should be mentioned that a lot depends on students’
individual character traits and their interpersonal relations. That is why the teacher-
trainer is expected to draft the cognitive actions plans for the training sessions, assigning
each student with a number of behavioural repertoires that vary from session to session.
What is more, the above planning should foresee each student professional, social,
emotional values. (Motivation of various values is understood after Dörnyei, Ushioda
2011, [13], Kugler, Lanham 2012, [14], Ritchhart et al 2011 [15]). The above
techniques contribute to the holistic approach to the students’ motivation reinforcement
on both personal and team levels.
Such an approach contributes to the systemic multidimensional motivational paradigm
of the students’ training that would take into account each team member and the overall
team weak and strong points, and would be tailored to various stages of students’ quasi-
professional activities during both training sessions and the context itself.
During the contest itself, students are eager to fulfil their task with maximum quality as
they are going to win a prize. At the same time, after the contest, each of the participants
can learn what points have been reduced. This allows students to perform introspection
work and to avoid similar mistakes in the future activities. Participation in the contests
under study allows students not only to improve their professional skills, but also to
assess themselves in comparison with their classmates. Those who did not participate in
the event see the success of their fellow students and seek to reach their level, knowing
that this is possible.

CONCLUSION
One of the priorities of the higher education is to develop creative thinking, professional
and general cultural competence of graduates. The requirements of the labour market
are now linked not only with the ability to use the knowledge and apply it in the
professional sphere, but also the readiness to search for new knowledge, to use it wisely,
to adapt actively to the new systems, to do lifelong learning throughout life.
Professional motivation is the main internal driving factor. Thus, it should be taken into
account when planning students’ activities in and outside the classroom. The students’
participation in professional context should be viewed as part of non-formal learning
integrated into the academic curriculum.
SGEM 2015 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts

The modern society views the goal to train highly qualified specialists as one of the
higher education key priorities. The process of improving the university-based training
of future experts is quite complicated and depends on many factors. One of them refers
to the adequacy of students’ awareness and attitude regarding the importance and
specifics of the future profession. The respective perceptions turn out to be obligatory
conditions for the formation of socially matured personalities. The students’
participation in the contests above portrayed is seen as an important instrument to
achieve the perspective goal.
The students’ participation in professional contests enhances both their learning and
professional motivation. Students are encouraged to explore specifics of their future
profession in concrete settings; students obtain comprehension of their urgent social
need (such as self-development, self-knowledge, professional development,
improvement of social status, etc.).
The motivation of students’ cognitive abilities and social skills motivation is considered
one of the components of the training, a substantial element of a holistic education
process.
Development of motivation techniques should be based on the integrated approach that
combines a thorough analysis of students’ needs, abilities, knowledge, skills, and
interpersonal relations inside the team.

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