Contoh Argumentative Essay

The Important of Student’s Instrumental Motivation in Teaching  Learning English Process.

By Faisal Rahman

There are many important factors in teaching learning process, especially language, one of them is motivation. Even Motivation is called as the “neglected heart” of language teaching. As a teacher, sometime we forget that our class activities are filtered through our student’s motivation, without student’s motivation, the class is like dead, there is no life in the class because students actually control the flow of the class. If we want to be a successful teacher we have to incorporate direct approaches to product students’ motivation.

The issue of motivation, particularly in teaching English context, is so important that other considerations about teaching methodology seem to pale in comparison. It is important to think about motivation as the essence of language teaching because of the stark realities of learning English for most of our students. All of the conditions that we know contribute to successful second language achievement are incomplete in most EFL contexts: there just isn’t enough English input in the environment, there probably aren’t enough chances for interaction with English speakers, there usually aren’t enough strong role models promoting the learning of English, and there may not be disseminated enough social reception for the idea of becoming skillful in English. Because of these contrary conditions, a student has to have special motivation in order to succeed at learning English (Michael Rost, 2006).

There are two kinds of motivations, they are integrative (individual/ internal) motivation and instrumental (external) motivation, Gardner and Lambert identified these two orientations as the two extreme of a continuousness. At one extreme, the integratively motivated learners wish to learn a new language in other to identify with or become a part of new social or cultural group. They want to integrate themselves into the culture of the second language. At the other extreme learners wish to acquire a language as mean for attaining instrumental goals such as furthering their career, reading technical material, translation and so forth (Mahshid Ghanea, Hamid Reza Zeraat Pisheh & Mohammad Hassan Ghanea, 2011). In relationship with teaching learning English process, both motivations have many influences, but the second one, instrumental motivation is more important than integrative motivation.

Crookes & Schmidt, (1991) mentioned that Integrative motivation is important because it is based on interest in learning English because of a desire to learn about or associate with people who use it (e.g. romantic reasons), or because an intention to participate or integrate in the English using speech community; in any case, emotions or affective factors are dominant (Saville & Troike, 2005). Motivation has been identified as the learner's orientation with regard to the goal of learning a second language (Mohammad Reza Ahmadi, 2011).

On other hand, there are many reason why instrumental motivation is more important than integrative motivation, According to Hamp-Lyons’s investigation of an intensive ESL program (1983), found that many students are motivated instrumentally rather than integratively, and they study English in order to “get some measurable extrinsic value of the learning outcomes” (p. 145). Learners with expressive motivation wish to establish a connection with the outside world through English. And English is an obligatory course for learners with purely extrinsic motivation, and they have to pass exams (Influence of Instrumental Motivation on EFL Learners in China and Its Implication on TEFL Instructional Design).

Gardner and Lambert (1972) argue that Instrumental Motivation involves perception of purely practical value in learning English, such as increasing occupational or business opportunities, enhancing prestige and power, accessing scientific and technical information, or just passing a course in school. Example: A professional designer in Chile who's just finished university and is willing to find a good job. He would probably find different kinds of offerings to start working, but, there is one special for him, that will pay him very well and his/her economic situation will change enormously. However, there is one condition to be accepted on the job, the designer they were looking for, must have good English qualities. After analyzing this example, we can consider that learning English, will be conducted by instrumental motivation, since the willing of having a good job and a good economic situation will impulse the learner to acquire an English. (Mohammad Reza Ahmadi, 2011)

In addition, a study of Iranian English learner by Mohammad Reza Ahmadi (2011) has result that Iranian EFL students have stronger instrumental motivation than integrative motivation toward language learning. The most important factors affect students' motivation are parents, teachers, social personality, university environment and examinations. Females were found to have stronger integrative motivation than males to learn English. Findings of this study have implications for teaching pedagogy .  The other study is in China, and the result shows that Chinese English learners exhibit powerful instrumental motivation, which is characteristic of certificate or exam driven motivation. The English learning context in China fosters this unique type of motivation and largely determines the selection of teaching and learning strategies. It is suggested that in addition to helping English learners pass exams and get certificates, instructional design should also emphasize the ability to use the English language appropriately, and guide autonomous learning in order to provide optimal learning experiences while minimizing the limitations with regard to the instrumental motivation to learn the English language. This is really a challenging job which can be completed through application of research findings, continued practice, and integration of technology in the classroom (Influence of Instrumental Motivation on EFL Learners in China and Its Implication on TEFL Instructional Design).

In summary, motivation is a very important factor of teaching learning English process, because it influence students’ desire in learning English, and the most important motivation in teaching learning English process is instrumental motivation because it has more influences than integrative motivation that can interests students to learn English for their life and future. So, as a teacher, we should know and can make the students are motivated by using instrumental motivation, but don’t ignore the integrative motivation.

REFERENCES

Ahmadi, Mohammad Reza. 2011. The Effect of Integrative and Instrumental Motivation on Iranian EFL Learners’ Language Learning. ELT VOICES.

Ghanea, Mahshid, Pisheh, Hamid Reza Zeraat and Ghanea, Mohammad Hassan. 2011. The Relationship between Learners’ Motivation (Integrative and Instrumental) and English Proficiency among Iranian EFL Learners. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology.

NN. Influence of Instrumental Motivation on EFL Learners in China and Its Implication on TEFL Instructional Design

Rost, Michael. 2006. Generating Students Motivation. Pearson Education. Inc..