Motivation And Anxiety In Foreign Language Teaching And Learning

This thesis intends to study motivation and anxiety in foreign language teaching and learning from theory research to practice implications.Motivation to learn a foreign language is key to language learning. Motivation is the learner's orientation with regard to the goal of learning a foreign language. There have been many studies into motivation in foreign languages, and Gardner and Lambert do one of the most principal investigations. They established two types of motivations: integrative motivation and instrumental motivation. The first implies a willingness to learn for its own sake, because the topic is interesting in itself; the second implies that study is undertaken out of a desire to reach a goal, perhaps go into a certain career or because a given qualification is required before some other desirable goal can be attained. Learners with integrative motivation are more active in class and are less likely to drop out. Besides, this thesis also discusses another two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, both of which facilitated learning. When intrinsically motivated, students tend to employ strategies that demand more effort and that enable them to process information more deeply. Extrinsically oriented students are inclined to put forth the minimal amount of effort necessary to get the maximal reward.Many researchers have stated that motivation and attitudes are essential factors in second language acquisition. Needless to say, no successful learning is accomplished without motivation. As Dornyei indicated in 1998, high motivation can make up for considerable deficiencies both in one's language aptitude and learning conditions.In language learning, motivation and attitudes are related to anxiety defined as a state of apprehension, a vague fear. Such apprehension or fear can cause motivation to plummet and attitudes to drift toward the negative. In a downward spiral, low motivation can then lead to poorer performance, which then results in still greater anxiety.Anxiety is defined as a state of uneasiness and apprehension or fear caused by the anticipation of something threatening. Anxiety in general can be associated with threats to self-efficacy and appraisals of situations as threatening. In a specific situation such as language learning, a fear of negative evaluation, test anxiety, communication apprehension, and threats to one's sense of self can reduce feelings of self-efficacy and increase the chances that a second language situation will be seen as threatening.The following is the framework of this thesis, which consists of five chapters:Chapter One is an introduction to the importance and purpose of the research of motivation and anxiety.Chapter Two includes a literature review of two main categories of motivation (integrative and instrumental motivation; intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) and anxiety (facilitating and debilitating anxiety) and the previous and recent development of motivation and anxiety research.Chapter Three is the most important part of the dissertation. The humanistic maxims provide the motivation and anxiety research with the theoretical background. As for the classroom interaction, this paper covers different roles of teachers and students in classroom and suggestions for promoting learners' motivation. Besides, it discusses the application of motivation and anxiety to teaching and learning foreign languages.Chapter Four deals with the effect of motivation and anxiety on foreign language learning and puts forward some specific strategies and implications on motivation and anxiety.Chapter Five serves as the conclusion of the dissertation.