Motivation: Some background thinking

(1) How important do you think motivation is for success in language learning compared to, for example, language aptitude?

I think motivation is probably the most important factor to reach our goals. Without motivation we won't take risks, for this reason , on my opinion, I think that is a fundamental part to improve our learning skills.

On the other hand if we are motivated but the teacher or class aren't , probably over the time we will loose interest thus motivation.

(3) What characteristics and behaviors do you associate with the image of a motivated learner?

Probably most notorious characteristics are the need for achievement, goal orientation, tolerance of ambiguity and the most important characteristic to achieve all of our goals in life is Perseverance.

Box 20.2 Survey of student opinions

1.- Number of People : Five people

2.- Most popular choices : There were two

(5) A good teacher is warm and friendly towards students

(7) A good teacher is interested in each student as a person.

3.- Least popular options : there were a few but the least option was :

(16) A good teacher uses corporal punishment occasionally

4.- A possible explanation for the most popular choices, I think maybe that’s the vision that we want or have of a good teacher, in my case I would like to be a comprehensible and dedicated teacher to my students, of course in a respectful way, because in that way we can help to students to get motivation and make the subjects of significance for them.

A possible explanation to the least popular, well clearly violence it’s the wrong way to teach and to the understanding of the students.

5.- A suggestion, i found some of the questions a little bit outdated, considering the methods of education that we have been studying for the past two years.

- ED