Literature Review: Behaviorism Theory And Foreign Language Learners

Chapter 2

Literature Review

Behaviorism Theory and Foreign Language Learners B. F. Skinner (1974) defined that human behavior is the range of actions and mannerisms exhibited by humans in conjunction with their environment, responding to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary. Human behavior is influenced by many factors, including attitudes, beliefs, emotions, reasoning, culture, values, ethics, religion, authority, rapport, motivation, persuasion, coercion, and genetics. William Littlewood (1984) defined that behavior in language learning is planning or conducting language learning methodically and regularly to make it more convenient and easier,

- Summarize learning contents. - Evaluate after learning. - Make good relationship with tutors outside the classrooms.

Attitude about Learning Longman’s dictionary of contemporary English (2003) defined an attitude as a feeling or thought that people have with something because of experiences or environment. It may be positive or negative which can make people have a tendency to react to something. Gardner (1975) and Littlewood (1984) said that attitude about learning is a feeling or opinion toward teachers, education system, teaching and learning process, and peers. These lead to the reactions of attitude in two kinds. 1) Positive learning attitude that students will be satisfied in learning, attend the class regularly, and appreciate the value of learning. 2) Negative learning attitude that students won’t be pleased to learn, don’t pay attention, don’t like to learn, despond or be bored easily, and often miss the class. As a result, the positive attitude about learning is an important factor that makes people to succeed in learning.

Gardner’s Motivation

According to the Socio-Educational Model developed by Robert Gardner (1985), he stated that motivation to learn a foreign language was a mixture of elements including effort, desire and a positive attitude toward the language at hand. Foreign language was not only an educational issue; it was also a representative of the cultural heritage of the people speaking that language. He talked about two kinds of motivation, the integrative and the instrumental, with much emphasis on the former. The integrative motivation referred to learners’ desire to at least communicate or at most integrate (or even assimilate) with the members of the target language. The instrumental motivation referred to more functional reasons for learning the language such as getting a better job, a higher salary or passing an examination. Instrumental motivation was not as permanent as integrative