Importance Of Motivation In Language Learning

2.4.2 Motivation in Second Language Learning and Language Performance

Besides gender, motivation is another individual differences (IDs) which was very important in explaining the SLL and SLA. Before going deeper into the claims made by the researcher, the understanding of the meaning and concept of motivation in language learning is very important. Motivation in general, was the forces that drive someone to do something or act in a particular way and it was known as the inner drive of a person. The only aspects of motivation that varies in individuals are the levels of motivation. In daily activities, there are forces that push an individual to act or do something and it goes the same with language learning.

Lai (2011) defined motivation

High motivation in language learning will eventually lead the students to have bigger chances of achieving their learning goal. Although motivation was not synonymous with achievement, but the effect of motivation drove the learners to the achievement. The motivation encouraged the learner to be more engaged with the activities during the language lesson and has more drive in achieving the language goals. Maehr (1989) reasserted the importance of motivation by emphasizing that the students’ motivation in learning has a positive effect on their academic performance. This suggested that motivation affects students’ academic performance in

Ryan (2009) also shared a similar definition of extrinsic motivation where the terms referred to doing something because it leads to a separable outcome. What the scholars mean in obtaining something and the separable outcome was to get some benefits or advantages from the actions done. Santrock (2011) stated that extrinsic motivation was frequently influenced by external incentives such as reward and punishment. This type of motivation can be seen in the case of students learning English in order to get better chance in job hunting and future career. Working hard for a promotion was also the case for the extrinsic motivation as the action is driven by the external goal.

To conclude, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation differs in term of the sources which were specifically from the internal factor for intrinsic motivation and external factor for extrinsic motivation. Both types of motivation however, still direct the person to achieve his or her goal in life. Looking back at the definitions for all of the four types of the motivation, it is clear that the types of motivation have more or less similar in meaning and concept. The only difference was the base of the motivation which is proposed by two difference scholar that has two different ideas of