Motivation, An Influential Factor For L2 Acquisition

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In a learning process we can find two different types of factors that really influence the Second language acquisition (SLA), there are: linguistics factors, and non linguistics ones, the first ones refer to the syntax and phonetic of the language and the second one talk about several aspects that also impact learner`s process as for example, social factors, emotional issues, social influences, and so others but today I want to focus on motivation as an influential factor in SLA. First of all we need to understand what motivation means and also how can we motivate in the appropriate way. Motivation, defined as the impetus to create and sustain intentions and goal-seeking acts is important because it determines the extent of the learner's active involvement and attitude toward learning (Ames & Ames, 1989), in other words; it is an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action. More specially, humans universally have needs or drive which is more or less innate, yet their intensity is environmentally conditioned. (Brown) Crookes and Schmidt stated that motivation is the learner’s orientation regarding the goal of learning a second language (1991). It is extremely important to understand the nature of student motivation because research shows that motivation plays a major part in students' choices of language learning strategies and the proficiency levels they achieve. However, language instructors often are not aware of the specific motivations of their students. An eventual theory of second-language teaching should take into account not only scientific knowledge coming from contributing sciences (linguistics, psychology, etc.), but also practical knowledge of language teachers. We are integrated human beings and for that reason is that we need several factors to be completed and this is what Maslow (1970) listed below, the
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