Why you keep giving up on language learning... and how to stop

What's motivation got to do, got to do with it?

One of the big themes emerging from the research on second language acquisition over the past 50 years is that what we think, and how we feel, about language learning has a huge impact on how well we do. 

After learning about the nature of language learning, we think putting yourself in the right mindset and developing a good relationship with language learning is the most important thing you can do for your progress.

But developing a good relationship with language learning is a big topic – one worth spending more than one issue on. So, over the next three weeks, we’ll be exploring:

1. Motivation

2. Attitudes

3. Emotion

Whilst they all may sound like they’re pretty much the same thing, that’s very much not the case. 

This week, we’ll be digging into motivation. But when it comes to language learning, what does this actually mean? 

Allow us to put forth another little equation. For our purposes, motivation is: desire to progress towards a language learning goal + effort spent fulfilling that desire. 

Motivation is the thing that starts us on the path of acquiring a language in the first place and it’s the thing that keeps us going through the long process. 

In second language acquisition research, motivation most commonly shows up as a factor which explains differences in outcome between learners. 

Why does one learner progress quickly while another learner struggles? Why do some learners reach high levels while others never do? Over the past half-century, researchers have appealed to differences in motivation to explain the differences in outcome.

It’s clear that different people have different motivations for learning languages. Some want to learn a language to get a better job or to travel, while others are fascinated by a particular culture or want to connect with their heritage.

As we mentioned in our first issue, we are learning Yiddish together. But we have very different motivations. For one of us (Natasha), it’s heritage. It’s linked to her grandma and a connection to her family’s culture and history. For the other (Colin), well, Colin…he’s more of a special case – when he gets the experience to learn a new language, the question is not “why?” but “why not?” 

One way of thinking about the different motivations we have for learning languages is to break them down into two broad types: integrative and instrumental motivation.

Integrative motivation is what drives you to learn a language because you are interested in the speech community which uses that language, and may even want to become a member of that community. 

Natasha’s experience with Yiddish is a good example of integrative motivation. In learning the language, she is connecting with her heritage, and becoming a part of a speech community. That’s a powerful type of fuel that keeps her coming back to Yiddish every week. Colin is doing the same thing with Irish (even though he’d promised he wouldn’t start any more language projects this year).

Instrumental motivation is what causes you to learn a language for more practical reasons, to achieve some pragmatic goal – a goal which may be related to your career or education, for example. 

An example of this type of motivation from our lives: Colin studied German for a time to be able to read certain academic books and papers – not that he doesn’t find the language fascinating and worth studying for its own sake, but at the time, the thing keeping him coming back to the language was mostly pragmatism. 

Natasha, on the other hand, started learning German when she started dating a German, and she thought that she probably should. However, she never actually had any desire to learn the language, and short of spending money on resources she hoped would trick her into caring more, she could never get past a couple of weeks of effort. Because her motivation simply wasn’t there.

Out of the two types of motivation, integrative motivation seems to be associated with better outcomes more often over the long run. However, this positive effect of integrative motivation seems to disappear in situations where learners don’t have access to the native speaker community of their target language.

Instrumental motivation is less frequently associated with good learning outcomes, but it is still motivation and motivation is good in certain contexts. This is especially the case where there’s urgency in learning the language, such as having 6 months until you start a new job in a new country, which is associated with better outcomes as well.

As we mentioned in our issue on first and second language acquisition, differences in motivation might be one reason for the differences we see between first and second language acquisition. 

Children are extremely motivated, in both the integrative and instrumental sense, to acquire their first language, thanks to the fundamental human need to communicate and to belong. This difference in motivation may account for some of the famous advantages children seem to have over adults in acquiring languages.

But how exactly does motivation help us acquire a language? 

Given that the process of acquisition lasts years, anything that keeps us coming back to the language throughout that long and often arduous process will make a big difference to our success. And based on the importance of input, if a strong motivation means that we spend 10 hours in a given week listening to and reading material in our target language (that’s all input, by the way!) rather than 2, it’s not hard to see how motivation can act as rocket fuel for your progress.

Whether you’re integratively or intrinsically motivated, know your motivation and don’t allow yourself to become cut off from it.

Motivation is one of the most important factors underlying success in acquiring your target language. It’s easy to lose sight of the larger reason you’re studying the language as you go through the (often challenging) day-to-day activities necessary for learning a language.

Understanding your motivation 

Take a moment to think about your own motivation for learning your target language. Is it something so clear that you could write it down in a sentence on a piece of paper? Or is it something more nebulous?

If you find that you’re not spending as much time on your target language, find some way to reconnect with your original motivation. For example, if there’s a book that motivated you to learn the language, why not open it up periodically to see how much closer you are to being able to read it.

If your motivations are purely instrumental right now, can you find some additional, non-practical reasons to fuel your desire to keep coming back to the language? Can you develop a love for the language’s literature or music?

Which type of motivation best describes your reasons for learning your target language? Are you driven more by integrative or instrumental motivation? Or perhaps a mixture of both? Let us know!

Until next time, how do you say goodbye in Irish?

Slán go fóill,

Colin & Natasha

Thumbnail Image Credit: Ape Lad/Flickr. Creative Commons.