The influence of the motivation on learning a second language
Introduction
The situation in public schools regarding the learning of a new language is worrying. Even with the changes made throughout these years to improve the results, the goal does not seem to be close. In our country, education plans and policies were made regarding the teaching of English as a second language, this is how a large number of public schools entered the Full School Day (JEC) program with the Blended methodology implementing laboratories for language practiceEnglish;However, progress has not been expected. This essay seeks to investigate the influence of motivation and its determining factor for learning a second language focusing on secondary level students.
It is known that motivation is important for student learning, but motivation also affects teachers. To what extent the teachers motivated to achieve a change in society affect and determined to provide quality education in little motivated students many of whom carry strong family and economic problems.
This essay will review the different motivation concepts applied to Peruvian reality in public educational institutions in order to reflect on the positive influence of teachers and the tools they have to improve education from where they are found.
Motivation in adolescence
Motivation is the force that moves us to perform some activity. According to Ajello (2003), motivation must be understood as the plot that sustains the development of those activities that are significant for the person and in which it takes part. On the educational level, motivation must be considered as the positive disposition to learn and continue doing it in an autonomous way.
However, if we talk about teenagers, the vast majority of them seem to have no. Many of them spend school life by approveing the course rather than chasing to really learn. This definitely varies depending on the age, experiences and sociocultural context of the student because the reality in which they live, often hard, does not allow them to visualize a different future and find no connection or relevance of learning a second language with their environment. According to Alonso (1993) adolescents focus the study not as an activity through which you can learn, where successes can be achieved and where it would be desirable to avoid failures, but as an instrumental activity whose value derives from being perceived asrelevant or not for the achievement of goals that have to do with values other than the logo or learning.
When we talk about motivation we can distinguish two types:
Extrinsic motivation:
The one that offers rewards (a good note, praise, etc.) or sanctions for the student for their implication and performance in some proposed activity. This type of motivation can be useful and necessary, however, it has many limitations because it is not durable. Behavior not constantly reinforced with rewards tends to extinguish and could even become counterproductive.
Intrinsic motivation:
Referred to situations where students carry out the activities proposed by the pleasure of doing them and the need for learning, regardless of whether it receives recognition or not.
The motivation and learning of a second language
The motivation of a student as defined by Gardner (1982) is composed of three elements: effort, which is the time dedicated to the study and management of a language;I wish, the longing for being able to communicate in another language;and affection, the emotional reaction of learning towards study.
Considering the third affective element, we can ensure that the vast majority of students enter secondary education with the curiosity and enthusiasm of learning a course they had never taken before. It is from there that in the following years a negative change towards English learning is generated.
The novelty falls in love, the students are excited because the English course is one of the most dynamic. However, learning is not acquired automatically, not at least in a country where they are surrounded by their mother tongue all the time. Learning a new language implies effort and discipline. This is where the gap is generated.
So what can teachers do to improve the performance of our students and keep them interested in the course. Can we positively influence them?
Motivation in teachers
To answer the previous questions we must first recognize that the motivation in teachers is vital for this to have a good performance and cause good results in the classroom. Moreover, it could be said that the teacher’s motivation is more important than a student’s motivation because it is the teacher who generates emotions and dynamics for the classroom.
External factors are usually blamed for the demotivation of students, however, we are the teachers who are facing them every day. But like students we also need motivation. If we think about extrinsic motivation, salary increases, promotions, public recognitions, etc. But what happens if they don’t offer us any of those rewards for our work.
As teachers we must return to the student’s time and think what really motivated us to choose this career. The vocation and enjoy what we do is priceless. We must recognize that no career is so wonderful nor has so much impact on society as ours and from our classrooms we can generate changes.
The claim of soft skills such as emotion management and generate our own motivation is needed. Training in emotional development is basic to stop blaming and self-motivating ourselves to wake up and realize that something can always be done.
According to Vidal, F., Nicasio, j. & Pacheco d. (2010), teacher’s enthusiasm on daily activities has a significant impact on increasing students’ motivation levels. Each achievement is directly linked with its own level of motivation of the teacher.
The neuron mirror
In the Magazine of Psychology and Education of Madrid, Emilio García tells us about the advances of neuropsychology for the fields of health and education.
Garcia, e. (2008) does not say that the human brain has evolved to educate and be educated. Learning and teachings, cultural transmission and education are natural in man. The brain is the evolutionary conquest that makes possible the various types of learning and is also the natural structure that gives limits to learning, determining what can be learned, in what moments and how quickly.
In 1995, product of many investigations, Italian neurobiologists identified a type of neurons unknown until that moment: mirror neurons or mirror neurons. Espejo neurons are a particular type of neurons that are activated when an individual performs an action, but also when he observes a similar action performed by another individual.
These mirror neurons are part of a neuronal networks system that enables perception-effect-intention. Only the observation of movements of the hand, foot or mouth activates the same specific regions of the motor cortex, as if the observer were making those same movements.
Translated into our daily life, we can say that when we see someone smiling, our brain tune in with their emotional state and we have the feeling that its joy is spreading.
Unfortunately, this happens with negative emotions. An aggressive person generates aggressiveness around him, a stressed person generates stress in his environment. This is the reason why we feel that there are magical people who have the power to make us feel good and others that on the contrary obscure us the day.
The Teacher Sets The Mood In The Classroom
What a great power and what responsibility to share part of what we are, knowledge and attitudes, with human beings in training. Enter their school world and try to influence them to achieve the objectives of the course. However, while we accompany them on the path of learning we are, we want or not, models for them. The objectives cease to be only course objectives to be life objectives.
With mirror neurons it is scientifically proven that moods can be transmitted. Therefore, a smiling teacher can create smiling students, thus, a passionate teacher is more likely to create passionate students.
There is a phrase in English that I like a lot: "The Teacher Sets The Mood in the Classroom", the literal translation would be the teacher establishes the mood in the classroom. This phrase brings with it a strong burden of responsibility for the teacher, but at the same time a burden of hope. We can change the reality of our students, at least during our class hours, we can let them dream that there are different things from those that they are accustomed and it is possible to achieve them if they propose it.
You can not teach those who do not want to learn, however, a teacher who understands the great transformation tool he has in his hands will be able to excite his students through curiosity, he will understand his interests and little by little the desire will be born in themfor learning.
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