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Motivation and Student Achievement 1
Running head: MOTIVATION AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
Motivational Strategies in a Foreign Language Classroom and How
They Affect Student Achievement
Lisa Wierzbicki
ED 646
7/10/06
Motivation and Student Achievement 2
Table of ContentsAbstract 1Chapter One 2Liturature Background of the Study 2Purpose of the Study 5Problem Statement 5Research Questions 6Definition of Terms 6Pilot Study 7Data Collection Methods 9Data Analysis Methods 12Significance of the Study 13Limitations of the Study 14Proposal Summary 15References 16Chapter Two 18Literature Review 18References 32Chapter Three 35Research Setting 35My School 36My Classroom 36My Students 37Clinical Faculty 37Author 38Ethics 39Data Collection Methods 39Data Analysis 41Summary 43Chapter 4 44Findings from Baseline Question 44Concluding Statement from Baseline Question 46Findings from Intervention Question 48Concluding Statement on Intervention Question 52Relevance to Literature 53Summary 54Chapter Five 55Summary of the Study 55Recommendations 56My Action Plan 57Summary 59Appendix A: Example of Student Survey 60Appendix B: Example of Pesos from Argentina 61Appendix C: Pilot Study 62
Motivation and Student Achievement 3
Abstract
The purpose of my study was to find out what motivates
students in a foreign language classroom. I wanted to understand
if the students in a select Spanish class were more intrinsically
or extrinsically motivated to study the language. I also wanted
to know what specific strategies motivated those students, and if
I integrated those motivational strategies into my classroom,
would there be a positive impact on the students’ grades. The
data collection methods I used were: questionnaire, conversation,
passive and active observation, and examining archival documents.
By using these methods of data collection I was able to form
inductive and deductive codes which I used to analyze my data, as
discussed in chapter three.
In the fall of 2005 my pilot study data pointed toward a
specific class of foreign language students as being more
extrinsically motivated. The study also showed that those
students were more extrinsically motivated by the usefulness of
the language, extra credit, candy, games and parental pressure.
This study is about those findings and some further research and
intervention.
Motivation and Student Achievement 4
Chapter One
In chapter one, I will introduce the reader to a few major
literature sources that provide a foundation to the study, the
purpose of the study, the problem I have to chosen to study, and
my research questions. I will also briefly mention the data
collection methods that were used and the data analysis methods
used. Lastly, I will discuss the limitations of the study and its
significance.
Literature Background of the Study
The overall topic for this literature review is what
motivates students in a foreign language classroom? In order for
me to further examine this topic I have chosen to focus on the
themes of what is motivation, what are some different types of
motivation, and what are some motivational strategies for a
foreign language classroom setting for this literature review.
Before I start in on my literature review, I want to state that
all of the italics belong to the respective authors.
Most authors who write on the topic of motivation have
formed a definition of their own to explain motivation. Woolfolk
(2004) writes “motivation is usually defined as an internal state
that arouses, directs, and maintains behavior” (p.350). Likewise
Ryan and Deci (2000) have a similar view on motivation, defining
motivation as, “To be motivated means to be moved to do
something…someone who is energized or activated toward an end is
Motivation and Student Achievement 5
considered motivated” (p. 54) A slightly different perspective on
motivation comes from Dörnyei (2001) who states, “‘motivation’ is
a general way of referring to the antecedents (i.e. the causes
and origins) of action” (p.6) These are the different definitions
I found for motivation while working on my research.
Another prominent theme found in my research is the many
different types of motivation. The two most common types of
motivation are intrinsic and extrinsic. According to Woolfolk,
“When we are intrinsically motivated, we do not need incentives
or punishments, because the activity itself is rewarding,” and
then she states, “In contrast, when we do something in order to
earn a grade, avoid punishment, please the teacher, or for some
other reason that have very little to do with the task itself, we
experience extrinsic motivation” (p.351). Another view on
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation comes from Ryan and Deci who
writes, “The most basic distinction is between intrinsic
motivation, which refers to doing something because it is
inherently interesting or enjoyable, and extrinsic motivation,
which refers to doing something because it leads to a separable
outcome” (p. 55). A different type of motivation is classified by
Dörnyei (1994). He argues that there are three motivational
components “course-specific motivational components, teacher-
specific motivational components, and group-specific motivational
Motivation and Student Achievement 6
components” (p.277). These are the types of motivation I found in
my research.
The final major theme I found in my research is motivational
strategies. In Dörnyei’s 1994 article he lists thirty
motivational strategies to use in a foreign language classroom.
These strategies range from, “facilitate student satisfaction by
allowing students to create finished products that they can
perform or display, encouraging them to be proud of themselves
after accomplishing a task,” to “promote student contact with L2
speakers by arranging meetings with L2 speakers in your country;
or, if possible, organising school trips or exchange programs to
the L2 community; or finding pen-friends for your students”
(p.281, 282) This author provides an extensive list of all the
motivational strategies one could ever ask for to use in a
foreign language classroom setting. These are the examples I
found of motivational strategies for a foreign language
classroom.
Through these four sources I was able to find an abundance
of information on the following themes: what is motivation, what
are the different types of motivation, and what are some
motivational strategies that would be useful in a foreign
language classroom setting.
Motivation and Student Achievement 7
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to find out what motivates
students in a foreign language classroom. I want to understand if
the students in a select Spanish class were more intrinsically or
extrinsically motivated to study the language. I also want to
know what specific strategies (i.e. extra credit, candy,
usefulness of the language, etc) motivated these students to
learn the language, and if I integrate those motivational
strategies in my classroom, will there be a positive impact on
the students’ grades.
Problem Statement
Throughout this quarter I have been studying the motivation
of students in a specific foreign language classroom. The
students at my placement range from extremely motivated to not
even turning in their homework. While this teacher is
enthusiastic about the subject, some of the students are just not
interested in learning Spanish. The reason I want to address this
problem is because when I start teaching, I want to be the best
foreign language teacher I can be. My goal is for my students to
walk away with an interest in Spanish. In order for this to
happen, I want to study what motivates these students, as well as
find out if the students are more intrinsically or extrinsically
motivated to study the language. I also want to find out how to
motivate the unmotivated and how to keep the enthusiastic
Motivation and Student Achievement 8
motivated, and find out if the more popular types of motivational
strategies has a positive correlation with the students’ grades
when integrated into an everyday lesson plan. This study centers
on discovering what actually motivates the students in a Spanish
classroom, and what can be done to motivate more students as well
as improve their grades.
Research Questions
Baseline Question:
1. Are students in a specific foreign language classroom
more extrinsically or intrinsically motivated?
a. Which strategies from the preferred motivation are
the most successful?
Intervention Question:
1. If I integrate the more popular motivational strategies
into my lessons, will the students’ grades improve?
Definition of Terms
Before starting my definition of terms I am going to state
upfront that all italics in this section belong to the authors.
1. Motivation- According to Woolfolk (2004) “is usually
defined as an internal state that arouses, directs, and
maintains behavior” (p. 350). When looking at how this
Motivation and Student Achievement 9
definition applies in the classroom, it is best to split the
definition down even farther.
2. Intrinsic motivation- Woolfolk writes, “When we are
intrinsically motivated, we do not need incentives or
punishments, because the activity itself is rewarding,”
3. Extrinsic motivation- Woolfolk states,“In contrast, when
we do something in order to earn a grade, avoid punishment,
please the teacher, or for some other reason that have very
little to do with the task itself, we experience extrinsic
motivation” (p.351).
4. Motivational strategies- Döryei (1994) best explains this
definition when he states that motivational strategies,
“facilitate student satisfaction by allowing students to
create finished products that they can perform or display,
encouraging them to be proud of themselves after
accomplishing a task” (p. 282).
Pilot Study
For my pilot study, I used the same baseline and
intervention questions, but due to time I did not have the
opportunity to do my intervention question. I was located at a
middle school and I used an eighth grade Spanish class of twenty-
five students. The methods I used to conduct my research were,
active observation of the students, a questionnaire for the
students (Appendix A), and I had casual conversations with two
Motivation and Student Achievement 10
foreign language teachers to find out what motivational
strategies worked best for them.
To analyze my data, I used deductive codes for motivation,
intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and an inductive code
for strategies. Then, I read all twenty-five questionnaires
returned by the students and then I decided which responses were
most common, and I went back and tallied the responses from the
students’ questionnaires. I also reviewed my notes from the
informal conversations I had with the teachers at my placement,
as well as reviewed my active observation notes.
After analyzing the data that I collected for my research I
have narrowed down the best strategies to motivate the students
of a specific foreign language classroom. To analyze my
observation notes, questionnaire answers, and conversation notes,
I applied the inductive codes of intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation. To further analyze the questionnaires, I found which
responses were most common and tallied the number of times that
response was found and produced percentages.
The majority of the students were extrinsically motivated.
Seventy-six percent of the students were motivated by the
usefulness of the language in a future job. Seventy-two percent
of the students were motivated by extra-credit. However, only
forty-eight percent were motivated by candy, thirty-two percent
were motivated by in class games, and twenty-eight percent were
Motivation and Student Achievement 11
motivated by pressure from parents. This pattern demonstrates
that the majority of the class was motivated through future use
of the language and extra-credit, which are both extrinsic
motivators.
Another type of example of the pattern lies in the
questionnaire itself. One of the students who cited future
usefulness is stated: “I know that in the U.S., the second most
common language is Spanish. So speaking it might help get a job.”
On the other end of the spectrum a student who cited parental
pressure in their questionnaire stated: “Well, I’m plenty
motivated, because if I fail (C or lower) my dad will rip my
lungs out through my nose.” These are the examples of the pattern
I found from my pilot study.
Data Collection Methods
I will employ a variety of data collection methods
throughout my study. These methods will include: a questionnaire,
passive informal conversations with teachers, and active
observations in the Spanish classrooms, passive observation, as
well as examining archival documents. The following section
explains why I chose each data collection method for this study.
Questionnaire:
I used the questionnaire in my pilot study in order to
find out from the students themselves what motivates them in
the foreign language classroom as well as what would help
Motivation and Student Achievement 12
them become more motivated. This method worked so well that
I plan on using it in my continued research. The students
will be asked what motivates them in a foreign language.
They will also be asked what will help them to become more
motivated in the foreign language classroom. As well as why
they chose to study the language, and if they have someone
who speaks the language so they can practice outside of
school. See Appendix A for an example of the questionnaire.
Conversation:
Another method I will use is informal conversations to
find out what motivational strategies work the best for the
teachers at my placement. In these informal conversations I
will ask the teachers what strategies really work in a
traditional foreign language classroom setting. Through
these informal conversations I will discover what my
teachers think is the best strategy for motivating students
and which strategies never seem to work in their classrooms.
Active Observation:
A third data collection method I will use is active
observation. I will actively observe the students of the
foreign language classrooms I will work in. In this time I:
will help out the teacher, observe the interactions between
the students, and help out the students when they have
problems with the lesson for the day. I will actively
Motivation and Student Achievement 13
observe how the students react to different motivational
strategies and how they affect the students’ motivation. As
well as implement different strategies during my student
teaching.
Passive Observation:
Another method of data collection I will use is passive
observation. I will observe the students at my placement, as
well as the teacher at my placement to view which
motivational strategies she implements and how well the
strategies motivate the students.
Examining Archival Documents:
A final method of data collection I plan to use is to
keep record of the students grades before I determine which
motivational strategies are the most preferred as well as
afterwards. By doing this, I will be able to see if by
changing the motivational strategies used in class has a
positive effect on the students’ grades.
In order to find out what strategies motivated students I
will employ all five of these methods throughout my research. I
used the questionnaire in my pilot study to find out what
strategies motivate students, and because the questionnaire
worked so well, I plan to use it again for my study. By using
informal conversations with the teachers at my placement I will
be able to find out what strategies they think best motivate
Motivation and Student Achievement 14
their foreign language students. Through active observation I
will be able to observe which motivational strategies work in the
foreign language classroom.
Data Analysis Methods
In the course of my research and data analysis I defined the
following codes: Motivated, Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic
Motivation, and Strategies. All of the italics are the author’s.
Motivated: Woolfolk (2004) writes “motivation is usually
defined as an internal state that arouses, directs, and
maintains behavior” (p.350).
Intrinsic Motivation: According to Woolfolk, “When we are
intrinsically motivated, we do not need incentives or
punishments, because the activity itself is rewarding” (p.
351).
Extrinsic Motivation: Then Woolfolk states, “In contrast,
when we do something in order to earn a grade, avoid
punishment, please the teacher, or for some other reason
that have very little to do with the task itself, we
experience extrinsic motivation” (p.351).
Strategies: Through my research I have defined strategies as
the activities used to motivate students. Some examples
consist of candy, extra credit, and games that are played in
class.
Motivation and Student Achievement 15
In order to analyze these data I will read all the returned
questionnaires and then I will decide which responses are the
most common. Then I will go back and tally the most common
responses from the students’ questionnaires. I will also review
my notes from the informal conversations I had with the teachers
at my placement, as well as review my active and passive
observation notes.
Significance of Study
The study that I am performing holds more significance than
how it applies to my classroom, because this study can be applied
to other classroom situations. For my own use, the data I
gathered will helped me know how to better motivate students in a
foreign language classroom, and as a result help me to become a
better foreign language teacher. This study will prove useful to
other foreign language teachers because the findings will apply
directly to them. The findings may also apply to teachers of
other subjects and to the parents or guardians who might want to
know how to better motivate their child to do his or her
schoolwork. My study would also be significant to my clinical
faculty because my study applies directly to their classroom, as
well as all future foreign language teachers to help educate them
in effective motivational strategies for foreign language
students. By providing these people with the information from my
Motivation and Student Achievement 16
study, it is possible that they can add to or adapt my research
in order to help another student in a different situation.
Limitations of the Study
As with any study ever done, mine has limitations. My
research has a few limitations. The first limitation I will
discuss is the most obvious, the fact that my study is done in a
foreign language classroom. Therefore, this might make it harder
to transfer my findings to other classrooms, but with
modifications the transfer is possible. A second limitation to my
study is the age group used. I am currently placed in a middle
school setting, so my findings might be difficult to use in a
high school or elementary school setting. Middle school students
in a foreign language classroom, however, may be motivated by the
same principles as a high school or elementary student in a
foreign language classroom setting. A final limitation to my
study is I am placed in a suburban upper-middle to upper class
school district. The findings of my study may not apply to rural
or urban school settings, or middle, or lower class settings.
However, I feel that some of the motivations are probably going
to be the same. These are some of the limitations to my study.
Proposal Summary
In summary, this study centers on discovering what actually
motivates the students in a Spanish classroom, and what can be
Motivation and Student Achievement 17
done to motivate more students. I want to do this study because I
want to become the best foreign language teacher I can be, and I
want my students to walk away with an interest in Spanish. In
order to do my study, I intend to both actively and passively
observe a foreign language classroom, give questionnaires to the
students over the topic of foreign language motivation, looking
at archival documents, and have causal conversations with several
foreign language teachers at my placement to find out which
strategies work best and which strategies do not work at all when
they are trying to motivate their students. Then I will analyze
my data using my inductive and deductive codes: Motivation,
Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Strategies. I will hopefully find out
which motivational strategies work the best, and if I integrate
those strategies into my lessons will there be a positive change
in their grades?
Motivation and Student Achievement 18
References
Bräuer, G. (Ed.). (2001). Pedagogy of language learning in higher
education. Westport: Ablex.
Blaz, D. (1999). Foreign language teacher’s guide to active
learning. Larchmont: Eye on Education, Inc.
Dörnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and motivating in the foreign
language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 78,
No.3, 273-284.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language
classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic
motivations: classic definitions and new directions.
Contemporary Educational Psychology, Vol. 25, 54-67.
Motivation and Student Achievement 19
Appendix A
Questionnaire
1. Why did you choose to study this foreign language?
2. What motivates you in the foreign language classroom?
3. Do you have someone to practice the language with
outside of school?
4. What would help you to become more motivated in the
foreign language class?
5. What helps motivate you? (ex: candy, extra credit, etc)
Motivation and Student Achievement 20
Chapter Two
In chapter two, I will provide a through review of relevant
literature. I will also show how this literature is relevant to
the important aspects of my action research project.
Literature Review
The overall topic for this literature review is what
motivates students in a foreign language classroom and if the
motivation affects the students’ academic achievement in a
positive way? In order to further examine this topic one needs
focus on these varying themes: what is motivation, what is
intrinsic motivation, what is integrative motivation, what is
extrinsic motivation, what is instrumental motivation, what are
some types of strategies for a foreign language classroom
setting, and the students’ academic achievement in general for
this literature review. As a side note, all italicized and
underlined words belong to the aforementioned author.
Most authors who write on the topic of motivation have
formed a definition of their own to explain motivation. Woolfolk
(2004) writes “motivation is usually defined as an internal state
that arouses, directs, and maintains behavior” (p.350). Likewise
Ryan and Deci (2000) have a similar view on motivation, defining
motivation as, “To be motivated means to be moved to do
something…someone who is energized or activated toward an end is
considered motivated” (p. 54). A slightly different perspective
Motivation and Student Achievement 21
on motivation comes from Dörnyei (2001) who states, “‘motivation’
is a general way of referring to the antecedents (i.e. the causes
and origins) of action” (p.6). Brown (2000), on the other hand,
defines motivation as a, “catch-all term for explaining the
success or failure of virtually any complex task. It is easy to
assume that success in any task is due simply to the fact that
someone is ‘motivated’”(p.160). Chamot, Barnhardt, Beard El
Dinary, and Robbins claim, “Motivation affects how hard students
are willing to work on a task, how much they will persevere when
they are challenged, and how much satisfaction they feel when
they accomplish a learning task” (p. 176). An explanation of how
motivation affects students in a foreign language comes from a
book edited by Oxford (1996), Oxford and Shearin explain:
Is motivation important to second or foreign language (L2)
learning? What does motivation contribute to L2 success,
over and about that which is contributed by a talent or
aptitude for learning languages? The answer is that
motivation is on of the main determining factors in success
in developing a second or foreign language (Gardner, 1985b;
Scarcella and Oxford, 1992). Motivation determines the
extent of personal involvement in foreign or second language
learning. Conversely, unmotivated students are
insufficiently involved and therefore unable to develop
their potential L2 skills. (p.121)
Motivation and Student Achievement 22
A clear and complete definition comes from the same book edited
by Oxford in a section by, Okada, Oxford, and Abo:
One comprehensive definition of language learning motivation
is that of Crookes and Schmidt (1991), who state that such
motivation consists of seven elements: (1) interest, (2)
relevance, (3) expectancy of success or failure, (4) belief
in forthcoming rewards, (5) decision to be involved, (6)
persistence, and (7) high activity level (p.106).
These are the different motivational themes I found while working
on my research.
One theme authors tend to separate motivation into is
intrinsic motivation. According to Woolfolk if someone is
intrinsically motivated they, “do not need incentives or
punishments, because the activity itself is rewarding” (p.351).
Another view on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation comes from
Ryan and Deci who writes, “The most basic distinction is between
intrinsic motivation, which refers to doing something because it
is inherently interesting or enjoyable” (p. 55). Another view on
intrinsic motivation comes from Brown who states, “Intrinsically
motivated behaviors are aimed at bringing about certain
internally rewarding consequences, namely feelings of competence
and self-determination” (p. 164). A final definition for
intrinsic motivation is found in the book by Hammerly (1985), who
explains intrinsic motivation as, “learning for the satisfaction
Motivation and Student Achievement 23
of learning” (p. 104). Intrinsic motivation is how most teachers
wish their students would be motivated, but usually that is
usually not the case. This was a look at intrinsic motivation in
the foreign language classroom.
A type of motivation that is similar to intrinsic is
integrative motivation. Integrative motivation, however, is
directly linked with learning a foreign language. Johnson (2001)
refers to integrative motivation as, “if they learning the
foreign language through a desire to learn more about a culture,
its language and people- to ‘integrate’ more within the target
language society” (p. 129). This type of motivation is not a new
theory. In a 1973 book edited by Oller and Richards, Gardner
implies that integrative motivation is the, “successful second
language acquisition depends upon a willingness (or desire) to be
like valued members of the ‘other’ language community” (p. 237).
In another book edited by Arena in 1990, Yoshida suggests that
integrative motivation is, “to learn about the target people and
culture that correlates positively with their linguistic ability”
(p. 20). This implies that they do not have to want to become a
member of the society, only want to learn about the people and
their culture. Another definition of instrumental motivation
comes from a book edited by Bräuer. In this book Galbreath-
Jernigan describes instrumental motivation as a type of
motivation, “for those learning the language to ‘communicate
Motivation and Student Achievement 24
with, interact with, or to become (in some small way) a part of
the other language community’” (p. 25). In the book that was
edited by Harley, Allen, Cummins, and Swain (1990) definitions of
integrative and anti-integrative sentiments are given. Bourhis,
the author of this section says, “Integrativeness refers to the
desire to become an accepted member of the outgroup culture; fear
of assimilation refers to the fear that belonging to this ‘other’
culture might result in the loss of the first language and
culture” (p. 141, 142). Lastly, Hammerly states that integrative
motivation as, “wanting to be a part of the other linguistic
group” (p. 104). This section was an in depth section on
integrative motivation in the foreign language classroom.
Another distinction authors make in the topic of motivation
is with extrinsic motivation. Ryan and Deci later state,
“extrinsic motivation, which refers to doing something because it
leads to a separable outcome” (p. 55). These are the types of
motivation found in research. Another definition of extrinsic
motivation comes from Woolfolk who writes, “In contrast, when we
do something in order to earn a grade, avoid punishment, please
the teacher, or for some other reason that have very little to do
with the task itself, we experience extrinsic motivation”
(p.351). Brown echoes these authors when he explains,
“Extrinsically motivated behaviors, on the other hand, are
carried out in anticipation of a reward from outside and beyond
Motivation and Student Achievement 25
the self. Typical extrinsic rewards are money, prizes, grades,
and even certain types of positive feedback” (p.164). Another
view on extrinsic motivation comes from Hammerly who states:
As language teaching to unwilling students tends to be
ineffective, there seems to be little point in doing it. It
can be argued, of course, that all students should be
exposed to another language and that if, thorough extrinsic
motivation (such as good grades), they do study, they will
learn” (p.82).
This section was an overview of extrinsic motivation and how it
can apply to the foreign language classroom.
A fourth type of motivation is instrumental motivation.
Instrumental motivation is similar to extrinsic motivation, but
instrumental is specifically related to learning a foreign
language. Johnson tells that instrumental motivation, “involves
learning in order to achieve some other goal. So, if you learn
French because you will get a better job if you speak the
language, then your motivation is…instrumental” (p. 129). In a
book edited by Omaggio-Hadley in 1993, O’Malley and Uhl-Chamot
explain that instrumental motivation include, “deriving
advantages from knowing the language in an occupation or to
accomplish external goals for learning…” and they argue
“Instrumental motivation was hypothesized to be less effective
because it is less personalized and more dependant on external
Motivation and Student Achievement 26
motivation, resulting in less sustained effort to learn and use
the language” (p. 106). Through research it shall be discovered
if this theory is correct. Yet another definition of instrumental
motivation comes from a 2001 book edited by Bräuer. Galbreath-
Jernigan clarifies instrumental motivation as, “for students with
pragmatic reasons for language study, including job opportunities
or social recognition” (p. 25). A final definition of
instrumental motivation comes from Hammerly who says that it is
the “learning for a practical purpose” (p. 104). These are
varying definitions on instrumental motivation.
Another theme which can be found is types of strategies.
Brown best defines strategies when he claims:
Strategies are specific methods of approaching a problem or
task, modes of operation for achieving a particular end,
planned designs for controlling and manipulating certain
information. They are contextualized ‘battle plans’ that
might vary from moment to moment, or day to day, or year to
year. Strategies vary intraindividually; each of us has a
number of possible ways to solve a particular problem, and
we choose one – or several in sequence – for a given problem
(p. 113).
In Dörnyei’s 1994 article he lists thirty motivational
strategies to use in a foreign language classroom. These
strategies range from, “facilitate student satisfaction by
Motivation and Student Achievement 27
allowing students to create finished products that they can
perform or display, encouraging them to be proud of themselves
after accomplishing a task,” to “promote student contact with L2
speakers by arranging meetings with L2 speakers in your country;
or, if possible, organising school trips or exchange programs to
the L2 community; or finding pen-friends for your students”
(p.281, 282). This author provides an extensive list of all the
motivational strategies one could ever ask for to use in a
foreign language classroom setting. About the use of strategies
Chamot, Barnhardt, Beard El-Dinary, and Robbins state, “Student
motivation is an important consideration when presenting learning
strategies instruction, and in turn, strategies instruction can
be quiet powerful in building student motivation for language
learning” (p. 178). Some strategies they suggest include, gauging
the students’ level of confidence and promoting their self-
efficacy. In a book edited by Brickbichler, Galloway and Labarca
claim:
“that every living being is motivated, albeit to different
aims, and that it is the teacher’s task to discover the
‘springs of motivation’ in individual students and channel
this motivation, through course content and classroom
activities, in the direction of language acquisition.
Whitehead (104) appeals for more vitality in the classroom
context: ‘Pupils have got to be made to feel they are
Motivation and Student Achievement 28
studying something and are not merely executing intellectual
minuets’ (p.9) Lubasa (67) cites such driving elements
as interest, freedom of choice, and confidence about being
on the right route and contends, further, that motivation is
goal oriented and supported by perseverance. Among those
factors that influence perseverance are the pleasure of
struggling with a task or problem, and the satisfaction
resulting from solving it” (p. 132).
According to a book edited by James and Garrett (1992) contains
another theory by Hedge and Gosden on a motivational strategy to
use in the foreign language classroom. This theory states:
in their desire to raise their student’s learner-ego, seeing
task-awareness as the most obvious means to this end…They
see one positive advantage to the sentence grammar approach:
it gives the learners confidence in their own abilities and
eventually prepares the way to a natural and authentic
concern for discourse (p. 164).
By using this strategy the teacher builds student confidence,
which in turn builds student motivation. About foreign language
strategies, McDonough implies:
First, strategies are effective: they are related to
solutions in specific ways, and they are productive in
solving the problem for reasons which theorists can
articulate. Second, strategies are systematic: learners do
Motivation and Student Achievement 29
not create or stumble upon the best strategy for solving a
problem but uncover the strategy from their knowledge of a
problem and employ it systematically. Third, strategies are
finite: a limited number of strategies can be identified.
Strategies are not idiosyncratic creations of learners…This
systematicity of strategies should be kept as a guiding
factor in the search for descriptions and explanations of
the strategies used by second language learners... A fourth
way of conceiving of strategies is to think of them as plans
for action… Stern’s original ten strategies – ‘features that
mark out good language learning’ (1975: 31) – are as
follows:
1. A personal learning style or positive learning
strategies;
2. An active approach to the learning task;
3. A tolerant and outgoing approach to the target
language and empathy with its speakers;
4. Technical know-how about how to tackle a language;
5. Strategies of experimentation and planning with the
object of developing the new language into an
ordered system and of revising this system
progressively;
6. Constantly searching for meaning;
7. Willingness to practise;
Motivation and Student Achievement 30
8. Willingness to use the language in real
communication;
9. Self-monitoring and critical sensitivity to language
use;
10. Developing the target language more and more as a
separate reference system, and learning to think in
it. (p. 5, 6).
This author provides an extensive list of what students should be
doing as well as how teachers can encourage the development of
these strategies in their students. In a book edited by Austin –
Haggstrom, Zarker – Morgan, and Wieczorek (1995), all of the
authors point out exceptional strategies for a foreign language
classroom. One strategy that was particularly interesting was the
think- aloud procedure, this procedure is:
The technique of asking learners to think aloud as they
attempt to solve problems encountered in the L2 has been
used extensively in recent L2 strategy research (Hosenfeld
1997 and 1979; Block 1986; Abraham and Vann 1987; Feldmann
and Stemmer 1987; Manghubai 1987; Vann and Abraham 1990). It
is seen to provide a unique opportunity to probe the inner
workings of a learner’s mind so as to gain insight into an
L2 learner’s mental activity when encountering problematic
situations (p. 22).
Motivation and Student Achievement 31
This was an extensive look at different strategies to use in the
foreign language classroom environment.
A final topic that needs to be covered is academic
achievement. Achievement has both positive and negative sides.
From a book edited by Bailey and Nunan (1996), the author
Hilleson points out, “There was certainly anxiety about future
academic achievement, particularly among lower proficiency
students…A recurring theme, however, was that there was no time
to worry about the future (p. 268). This shows that while
students may care about their academic achievement they just may
not have the time available. On a slightly contradictory note,
Johnson argues, “The basic finding is that there is little
relationship (correlation) between intelligence and achievement
in FL learning” (p. 119). Johnson later contradicts himself when
he states:
Genesee’s attempt to correlate French achievement and
intelligence find no relationship between intelligence and
what he calls ‘communication skills’ (basically, speaking
and listening). Be he does find a correlation between
intelligence and what he calls ‘academic language skills’ –
that is, reading and writing. This suggests that being
intelligent will help you to learn reading and writing, but
not speaking and listening (p. 119, 120).
Motivation and Student Achievement 32
Lastly, in Dörnyei’s 2001 book he cites the achievement
motivation theory. This approach:
is determined by conflicting approach and avoidance
tendencies. The positive influences are the expectancy (or
the perceived probability) of success, the incentive value
of successful task fulfillment and need for achievement. The
negative influences involve fear of failure, the incentive
to avoid failure and the probability of failure (p. 10).
These are several examples of achievement in a foreign language
classroom.
Overall this literature review covered what is motivation,
what is intrinsic motivation, what is integrative motivation,
what is extrinsic motivation, what is instrumental motivation,
what are some types of strategies for a foreign language
classroom setting, and the students’ academic achievement in
general for this literature review. Hopefully this helped to
define these topics so the question of, what motivates students
in a foreign language classroom and if the motivation affects the
students’ academic achievement in a positive way?
Motivation and Student Achievement 33
References
Arena, L. A. (Ed.). (1990). Language proficiency: defining,
teaching, and testing. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Bailey, K.M., Nunan, D. (Eds.). (1996). Voices from the language
classroom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Bräuer, G. (2001). Pedagogy of language learning in higher
education: an introduction. Westport, Connecticut: Ablex
Publishing.
Birckbichler, D. W. (Ed.). (1990). New perspectives and new
directions in foreign language education. Lincolnwood,
Illinois: National Textbook Company.
Brown, D. H. (2000). Principles of language learning and
teaching: fourth edition. White Plains, NY: Pearson
Education Company.
Dörnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and motivating in the foreign
language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, V. 78, 3,
273-284.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language
classroom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Hadley-Omaggio, A. (Ed.). (1993). Research in language learning:
principles, processes, and prospects. Lincolnwood, Illinois:
National Textbook Company.
Motivation and Student Achievement 34
Haggstrom-Austin, M., Morgan-Zarker, L., Wieczorek, J.A. (Eds.).
(1995). The Foreign language classroom: bridging theory and
practice. New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.
Hammerly, H. (1985). An Integrated theory of language teaching:
and its practical consequences. Blaine, WA: Second Language
Publications.
Harley, B., Allen, P., Cummings, J., Swain, Merrill. (Eds.).
(1990). The Development of second language proficiency.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
James, C., Garrett, P. (Eds.). (1992). Language awareness in the
classroom. Essex, England: Longman Group UK Limited.
Johnson, K. (2001). An Introduction to foreign language learning
and teaching. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.
McDonough, S.H. (1995). Strategy and skill in learning a foreign
language. London, England: Edward Arnold.
Mills, G. E. (2003). Action research: a guide for the teacher
researcher 2nd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill
Prentice Hall.
Oller, J. W. Jr., Richards, J.C. (Eds.). (1973). Focus on the
learner:pragmatic perspective for the language teacher.
Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers, Inc.
Oxford, R.L. (Ed.). (1996). Language learning motivation:
pathways to the new century. Honolulu, HI: University of
Hawai’i Press.
Motivation and Student Achievement 35
Ryan, R. M., Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic
motivations: classic definitions and new directions.
Contemporary Educational Psychology, V. 25, 54-67.
Uhl-Chamot, A., Barnhardt, S., Beard-El-Dinary, P., Robbins,
Jill. (1999). The Learning strategies handbook. White
Plains, NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Woolfolk, A. (2004). Educational psychology. Boston: Pearson
Education.
Motivation and Student Achievement 36
Chapter Three
In chapter three, I will begin by telling the reader about
the research setting (e.g., classroom, school) and the people in
it who are relevant to this study (e.g., students, myself,
clinical faculty, and other teachers through simple demographic
information-age, maybe appearance, number of years teaching, and
anything else that might be useful-that would help the reader
visualize my research). I will discuss in detail the data
collection methods used (why chosen, the context when used, any
problems/unexpected successes in their use). I will also discuss,
in detail, the data analysis procedure used and the codes found
to be most useful.
Research Settings
My research took place in one school, a middle school. This
middle school is one of three in the community. The first part of
my research was completed in fall of 2005 and the second part of
my research was completed in spring of 2006. The school district
I did my research in was an upper-class suburban school. Out of
the 653 students at the middle school I did my research at: 87.2%
are White, 6.0% are Asian or Pacific Islander, 3.7 % are African
Americans, and 1.9% are Multi-Racial. Of those 653 students:
10.7% are students with disabilities, 3.7% are economically
disadvantaged, and 2.4% are limited English proficient. There are
approximately 25,000 people in this community. The living
Motivation and Student Achievement 37
accommodations in this city range from apartments to four or more
story homes. This school has been awarded the title of
“Excellent” by the Ohio Department of Education for the 2004-2005
school year.
My School
The school where I did my research is around 30 years old,
but a new gymnasium and wing were being built throughout the
school year, and during the summer of 2006 all of the classrooms
are being revamped. All of the teachers seem to love being there
and everyday you will see several teachers coming in early and
staying late. This school is a pleasant working environment. The
teachers follow a strict discipline policy and the
“troublemakers” are dealt with in an appropriate fashion.
Overall, this is a jovial school that made my research enjoyable.
My Classroom
During the fall of 2005 my classroom was on the school’s
stage. In my room there were 28 desks, a teacher’s desk, a TV and
DVD player, a file cabinet, a white board and a bulletin board.
Occasionally there would be loud foot-traffic because the multi-
purpose room was right below the stage, but the removable wall
helped tone down the noise below.
In the spring of 2006 the stage was under construction so I
became a traveling teacher during my student teaching. My
classrooms ranged from a science classroom, to an English
Motivation and Student Achievement 38
classroom, to a math classroom. I was all over the school. Being
a traveling teacher forced me to adapt to the environment I was
in for that period because I was at the mercy of that teacher’s
classroom. The classrooms varied from lab tables and a
chalkboard, to regular desks and a white board.
My Students
My students were 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who, for the most
part, had a genuine interest in Spanish. These students seemed to
be fascinated by learning about another culture and that
culture’s language. Not only were they captivated by the idea of
learning about some of the world around them, but some were more
economically minded by telling me that knowing Spanish would help
them get a job in the future, while others liked the culture, and
some liked the grammar aspect of the language. However, there
were the typical middle school disciplinary problems with some of
the students, but overall the students seemed to genuinely enjoy
Spanish.
My Clinical Faculty
My clinical faculty was a man of thirty-seven years old. He
has taught Spanish for eleven years, but only four of those years
were at this middle school. The other seven years were taught in
the same school district, but at the high school level. Not only
did my clinical faculty teach Spanish, but he also was the middle
school athletic director, middle school girl’s softball coach,
Motivation and Student Achievement 39
and the assistant principal. Needless to say he was busy. My
clinical faculty taught Spanish very well, and I learned a lot of
good techniques from him. On the flip side, I also learned some
techniques not to do in class from observing him. He would
occasionally use sarcasm and tease some select students. Some of
the students were fine with these tactics, but a few others were
honestly hurt by what he would say. In general he was friendly
with the students and he got along well with the rest of the
staff. Overall, he is well liked by his students, and he was a
good example to me of how to be an effective teacher as well as
how I should not use sarcasm or tease some students as he did.
Author
At the start of my research I was twenty-two, and I had just
started graduate school for my Multi-Age License in Spanish. At
the end of my research I was twenty-three, and finishing up
graduate school. I was born and raised in a middle class family
in a city in northwest Ohio. The community I lived in is a
diverse community in both race and economic status that is
comprised of mostly democrats. Because of my environment I grew
up with liberal ideas, and I believe that everyone is entitled to
a solid education no matter of race or economic background. Along
with this belief my values include: honesty, open-mindedness,
equality, and justice. My passion for Spanish and exploring other
cultures helps me to share this love with others.
Motivation and Student Achievement 40
Ethics
As appropriate to any code of ethics, I will not divulge any
name or location so as to uphold the anonymity of those people
and places involved in my study. I will refer to those people
with pseudonyms or no name at all, and the school name and its
location will not be revealed. All of my research was collected
anonymously.
Data Collection Methods
Questionnaire
I used the questionnaire in my pilot study in order to find
out from the students themselves what motivates them in the
foreign language classroom as well as what would help them become
more motivated. By using this method, I was able to gather all
the necessary research for what motivates foreign language
students. There are between twenty-five and twenty-seven students
in each class. The students were asked what motivates them in a
foreign language. They were also asked what will help them to
become more motivated in the foreign language classroom. As well
as why they chose to study the language, and if they have someone
who speaks the language so they can practice outside of school. I
distributed and collected the five question questionnaires on
December 7, 2005 in all of my classes. See Appendix A for an
example of the questionnaire.
Conversation
Motivation and Student Achievement 41
Another method I used was informal conversations to find out
what motivational strategies work the best for the teacher at my
placement. I used this informal method with my teacher in fall of
2005 and in spring of 2006. In those informal conversations I
found out that in the teacher’s point of view on which
motivational strategies work and which do not in a traditional
foreign language classroom setting. I was also able to use my
teacher as a sounding board to bounce my motivational ideas off
of him. This was a very effective method.
Active Observation
A third data collection method I used was active
observation. I actively observed the students of the foreign
language classrooms I worked in during fall 2005. In this time I:
helped out the teacher, observed the interactions between the
students, and helped out the students when they have problems
with the lesson for the day. I actively observed how the students
reacted to different motivational strategies and how they affect
the students’ motivation. From these observations I implemented
several different strategies during my student teaching in spring
2006. During this time I continued to observe the students as I
taught to gauge their reaction to the strategies I executed.
Passive Observation
Another method of data collection I used was passive
observation. I passively observed the students throughout fall
Motivation and Student Achievement 42
2005 to see if what their teacher told me what motivates them is
actually what worked. This was helpful because I got to see what
worked before actually trying what I intended to do.
Examining Archival Documents
A final method of data collection I used was I kept a record
of the students’ grades from just before I started student
teaching (the end of third quarter), and compared them to their
grades at the end of my research (their fourth quarter grades).
This comparison of their grades before I implemented the
motivational strategies to the grades after I implemented the
motivational strategies was quite helpful to my research. By
doing this, I was able to see if by changing the motivational
strategies used in class has a positive effect on the students’
grades.
Data Analysis
In the course of my research and data analysis I defined the
following codes: Motivated, Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic
Motivation, and Strategies.
Motivated: I define motivated as a student who wants to do
well in Spanish or wants to study Spanish. These reasons are
because of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.
Intrinsic Motivation: Throughout my research intrinsic
motivation has come to mean: students who do want to study
Spanish and do well in Spanish simply for the fact that they
Motivation and Student Achievement 43
love Spanish. They may love the culture, the history, the
grammar, but either way they just want to be there and study
Spanish.
Extrinsic Motivation: In my research I have identified
extrinsic motivation as students who want to study Spanish
and do well in Spanish for one or multiple of these reasons:
parental pressure to do well, knowing Spanish will be
beneficial in today’s job market, an overall drive for good
grades, and receiving prizes or extra credit for proper
behavior and good grades.
Strategies: Through my research I have defined strategies as
the activities used to motivate students. Some examples
consist of candy, extra credit, and games that are played in
class.
In order to analyze these data I will read all the returned
questionnaires and then I will decide which responses are the
most common. Then I will go back and tally the most common
responses from the students’ questionnaires. I will also review
my notes from the informal conversations I had with the teacher
at my placement, as well as review my active and passive
observation notes, and archival documents.
Summary
In this chapter, I informed the reader about the settings:
my school, the classrooms, my students, my clinical faculty,
Motivation and Student Achievement 44
myself and my ethics. I also discussed my methods of data
collection. Also, I discussed, in detail, the data analysis
procedure used and the codes found to be most useful.
For chapter four, I show the results of my research, and
then I will connect them to my literature review in chapter two.
Motivation and Student Achievement 45
Chapter Four
In chapter four, I will present my findings as answers to
the research questions. I will discuss these findings and show
their connection with the literature presented in chapter two.
Also, I will illustrate these findings by providing data
excerpts.
Findings from Baseline Question
The first research question was: “Are students in a specific
foreign language classroom more extrinsically or intrinsically
motivated?”
I researched this question using the aforementioned methods
in chapter three. After analyzing the data that I collected for
my research I have narrowed down the best strategies to motivate
the students of a specific foreign language classroom. To analyze
my observation notes, questionnaire answers, and conversation
notes, I applied the inductive codes of intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation. To further analyze the questionnaires, I found which
responses were most common and tallied the number of times that
response was found and produced percentages. To keep the sample
simple I limited it to one class, an eighth grade Spanish class
of twenty-five students. I chose to limit the sample because upon
reviewing the other classes’ questionnaires, they all had similar
answers.
Motivation and Student Achievement 46
The majority of the students were extrinsically motivated.
These patterns were found in analyzing questionnaire answers.
Seventy-six percent of the students were motivated by the
usefulness of the language in a job in the future. Seventy-two
percent of the students were motivated by extra-credit. However,
only forty-eight percent were motivated by candy, thirty-two
percent were motivated by in class games, and twenty-eight
percent were motivated by pressure from parents. This pattern
demonstrates that the majority of the class was motivated through
future use of the language and extra-credit, which are both
extrinsic motivators.
Figure One:
The following is a bar graph that demonstrates the number of
students who cited: usefulness, extra-credit, candy, games, and
parental pressure as motivators in the foreign language
classroom. The bars represent the number of students out of
twenty-five who cited those motivators. This questionnaire was
given on December 7, 2005.
Motivation and Student Achievement 47
Another type of example of the pattern lies in the
questionnaire itself. One of the students who cited future
usefulness is stated: “I know that in the U.S., the second most
common language is Spanish. So speaking it might help get a job.”
An example of extra-credit as a motivator comes from another
student’s questionnaire which says: “The teacher is very funny
and all his extra-credit opportunities motivate me.” On the other
end of the spectrum a student who cited parental pressure in
their questionnaire stated: “Well, I’m plenty motivated, because
if I fail (C or lower) my dad will rip my lungs out through my
nose.”
These are different types of example of the pattern I found
in my research about what type of motivation is prevalent in my
classroom and from that type of motivation, what strategies best
motivate the students in a specific foreign language classroom.
Concluding Statement from Baseline Question
Once my data had been collected and analyzed, I have found
that sixth, seventh, and eighth graders are surprisingly
knowledgeable about what motivates them. I originally thought
that it would be difficult for some, if not all, of the students
to write what motivates them. What do middle school students know
about motivation? More than I thought apparently. Without saying
or even understanding the words extrinsic or intrinsic, the
students were incredibly capable of putting their thoughts of
Motivation and Student Achievement 48
what would help them learn Spanish, or what would motivate them
to learn Spanish onto paper. A possibility as to why they were so
well spoken is the fact that I was in an affluent school
district, but since I did not perform any of my research in a
less-affluent school district I have nothing to back that theory
up.
In a way, I was not surprised when extrinsic motivation was
far more popular than intrinsic in my research, but the Spanish
enthusiast that I am was hoping for a couple intrinsic students.
I was slightly surprised however, that games and candy were not
higher on the list. This could be because parents and the media
are pushing the practicality of the ability to know a second
language. This is especially true with Spanish because it is
quickly becoming the second most spoken language in the United
States because of the rising Hispanic population.
Another reason I am not too surprised about extrinsic
motivation winning out over intrinsic motivation is because of my
other data collection methods. Through talking with my clinical
faculty he believed, based on his eleven years of teaching
experience, that the students would be more extrinsically
motivated. This is because as he said, “Kids will be kids, and
they will always love the prizes, extra credit and games over
just a love of the language.” Also through conversations and from
Motivation and Student Achievement 49
observing my students, it became apparent that the students would
be more extrinsically inclined.
Findings from Intervention Question
My intervention question was, “If I integrate the more
popular motivational strategies into my lessons, will the
students’ grades improve?”
I used all the same research methods as mentioned in chapter
three for my intervention question. However, with the
intervention question an extra step was added, the peso program.
For this program I search on the internet and found an image
of a peso from Argentina. I copied it to a word document
(Appendix B) and then had them printed on blue paper and had cut
the pesos out. I then explained the peso system to them as such:
For the fourth quarter we are going to try something a
little different. We are going to use the peso system! With
this system you collect ten pesos, and once you have
collected them you can turn them in for five points extra
credit or for a prize in my tin.
The five points extra credit, the points were added into the raw
score extra credit column. In the tin I put objects like: small
containers of Play-Doh, bouncy balls, pencils with Spanish on
them, candy, and toys from McDonald’s happy meals. I did give the
students a warning that if they got caught with their toys in
another teacher’s class, that I am not responsible for their
Motivation and Student Achievement 50
irresponsibility, and that the toys were meant for after school.
All of the students respected this rule.
Then I continued to explain how you earn pesos. The
students could earn a peso for: getting an A on a test or a quiz,
doing all of their homework for the week, class participation,
and for helping me out (i.e. taking the attendance down).
According to their surveys this program was tapping into the
second and third highest forms of extrinsic motivation, extra
credit and candy/prizes. A nice part about this system is the
students have the ability to choose. Do I want a prize, or do I
want to better my grade by extra credit? By introducing this
program the students were excited and the students’ participation
and homework completion immediately increased, but the real test
would be comparing their third quarter grades (pre-peso grades)
with their fourth quarter grades (post-peso grades).
Figure Two:
The following table demonstrates the overall average change
in grades from the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. This grade
change is shown in percentage form and each average is an average
from the whole grade level.
Grade Level Average Grade Change in %
Sixth Grade + 6.654%
Motivation and Student Achievement 51
Seventh Grade + 5.296%
Eighth Grade + 5.833%
As figure two shows, all three grade levels had at least a
five point two percentage change. That change can make a letter
grade difference to some students. If not a whole letter grade,
this change could make a B- into a B+, but what does that show of
individual students?
Figure Three:
Figure three is a table that shows the highest and lowest percent change from each grade
level. This will demonstrate that the peso program affected some students differently, and that
not all students were around the five percent mark.
Student/Grade Level 3rd Quarter Grade 4th Quarter Grade % Changed
Tommy, Sixth Grade 40% F 81% B- 41%
Matt, Sixth Grade 90% A- 90% A- 0%
Sally, Seventh Grade 66% D 85% B 19%
Brad, Seventh Grade 87% B+ 84% B -4 %
Meg, Eighth Grade 91% A- 105% A+ 14%
Sarah, Eight Grade 93% A 93% A 0%
This table exhibits that the peso program affected almost
all of the students positively. Only one student out of all three
grade levels had a grade decrease from third quarter to fourth
Motivation and Student Achievement 52
quarter, all other students’ grades either stayed the same or
went all the way up forty-one percentage points.
Another example of the peso program’s success comes from
informal conversation. During my last week at my placement I
asked my students one simple question, “What did you think of the
peso program?” and the response was overwhelming. The following
are examples of what students said about the peso program.
The sixth graders were excited to share their thoughts. Greg
said, “It makes kids participate. I didn’t use to participate.
Now I do”. While Brittany stated, “It motivated us to do good”.
Caroline thought, “The pesos taught us responsibility it was our
fault if we lost them.”
The seventh graders also love the program. Austin said, “The
peso program was good because it gave you something to strive
for”. While Tyler said, “I never participated until I got pesos
for it”. Kyle stated, “It was a good way to get people interested
in the class”.
The eighth graders were equally as enthusiastic. Jill
explained, “I liked the program because it rewarded you for doing
what you should do anyhow”. Jack said, “I wish our other teacher
would have done it. It motivates me to do good”. While Brian
thought, “It gave me a chance to get extra credit, which I
definitely need”.
Motivation and Student Achievement 53
I was really interested to see that not only did I think the
peso program was a success, and the grades showed the program to
be a success, but the students thought the pesos were a success
as well. This success encourages me to try the program again when
I teach on my own.
Concluding Statement on Intervention Question
After all of the research and number crunching is done I
have realized that no matter how much I, and probably all
teachers, desire intrinsic learners who are there for the pure
love of Spanish, those students are few and far between. However,
I do realize that all students have some form of extrinsic
motivation within them. When I first thought about doing the peso
program I was uncertain how the students would take to it, and I
was unsure if the peso program would help at all. My clinical
faculty loved the idea and he has told me that if he continues
teaching Spanish (he might take a job as a permanent Athletic
Director) he will use the peso program. From my research and
intervention I think that the peso program worked well.
Overall, I think my peso program that I designed and
installed at this middle school was a success. I had more
students raising their hands to participate, I had more questions
from those that did not understand but wanted to so they could do
their homework, and I had an improvement in grades overall with
huge leaps in some specific students. I would love to do this in
Motivation and Student Achievement 54
my current position in fall of 2006, but I will be working with
high school students and I do not know if they will take to the
peso program as well as the middle school students did.
Relevance to Literature
After reviewing books and articles and performing my own
research in the field it has become obvious to me that all
foreign language students are motivated. Whether the students
motivation is intrinsic or extrinsic, instrumental or
integrative, or a combination of all four (because instrumental
and integrative is very similar to extrinsic an intrinsic) they
are all motivated. By researching all the forms of motivation
found in a foreign language classroom it was easier for me to
identify the types of motivation that my students have within
them.
Through the study of these types of motivation and how they
apply to the classroom it becomes easier for a teacher to
formulate which strategies will work best in his or her
classroom. Students will always have a form or several forms of
motivation within them. However, it is up to the teacher if he or
she wants to delve into their students to find out how to become
a better teacher for them.
Also by researching academic achievement I was able to
understand further which the formal definition of academic
Motivation and Student Achievement 55
achievement and how it applies to my research because academic
achievement gave me a bar to which I could compare my students.
In addition to researching those topics I found a subject
that came up in the classroom, but not in the books. This topic
is the relevance of age. Are middle school students motivated
differently than high school students? I think this topic
warrants further study.
Summary
In chapter four, I took you through my research and
presented my findings to you. I also showed how the literature I
reviewed in chapter two is connected to my research. I clarified
my research by illustrating my findings through graphs and
tables.
Motivation and Student Achievement 56
Chapter Five
In chapter five, I will summarize my study, present
recommendations for others, and discuss my plan of action for
future teaching based on the findings of this study.
Summary of the Study
The purpose of my study was to find out what motivates
students in a foreign language classroom. I wanted to understand
if the students in a select Spanish class were more intrinsically
or extrinsically motivated to study the language. I also wanted
to know what specific strategies motivated those students, and if
I integrated those motivational strategies into my classroom,
would there be a positive impact on the students’ grades. The
data collection methods I used were: questionnaire, conversation,
passive and active observation, and examining archival documents.
By using these methods of data collection I was able to form
inductive and deductive codes which I used to analyze my data, as
discussed in chapter three.
In the fall of 2005 my pilot study data pointed toward a
specific class of foreign language students as being more
extrinsically motivated. The study also showed that those
students were more extrinsically motivated by the usefulness of
the language, extra credit, candy, games and parental pressure.
This led the way to continue my research and intervention in
spring of 2006. By implementing the peso program, as described in
Motivation and Student Achievement 57
chapter four, I was able to see if those motivational techniques
found in both the program and in the questionnaire would
positively affect those students’ grades. Then I calculated the
data to find out if the students’ fourth quarter grades (post
peso program) were higher than their third quarter grades (pre
peso program). As it turned out, by employing those extrinsically
motivating techniques the students’ grades increased with class
averages of 6.654% for the sixth graders, 5.396% for the seventh
graders, and 5.833% for the eighth graders. I find it exciting
that if research into what motivates your students and if you use
those methods in class your students’ grades will improve.
Recommendations
From my experience with this study, I would like to give
some recommendations to all educators including: my cooperating
teacher, foreign language teachers, non-foreign language
teachers, parents and myself.
To my cooperating teacher, I recommend that you take the
time to find out what motivates your students and apply
strategies involving what motivates them into your classes. Once
you find out what motivates and them and put it into action you
hold the key to their attention. Not only do you have their
attention, but you also will see an improvement in attention and
grades.
Motivation and Student Achievement 58
To other foreign language teachers, be innovative with your
students. Find out what motivates them and run with it. If you
establish a program like the peso program into your class your
students will develop an interest for your class and their grades
will improve.
To non-foreign language teachers, all those this study has
been foreign language centric, the principles of this study can
cross into other subjects. Motivation is not foreign language
specific, find your students’ interest and spark it.
To parents, if you do not know the foreign language your
child is studying do not shut it off. Learn with your child for a
bonding experience, and always encourage and support your child
in all academic subjects. If your child has your support and if
you motivate them to do well they will go far.
My Action Plan
At the beginning of my study I wanted to find out what
motivates foreign language students in a specific foreign
language classroom and if I apply strategies that contain that
type of motivation if it will improve their grades. I found out
that the students were extrinsically motivated and by applying
the specific strategies grades did improve.
What I must keep in mind is that not all students are the
same. I should not assume that because the peso program was a
success at the middle school that it will be a success when I
Motivation and Student Achievement 59
start my new position in the fall. Every student is an individual
and should be treated as such.
However, I have learned that I need to keep plugging away
until I find out what motivates my future students. I must not
walk into this new position blindly; I need to be open to new
ideas and new strategies to motivate those students.
Although I have realized that not all students are
intrinsically motivated to learn Spanish, I must show my passion
for the language. If I maintain a positive attitude towards
Spanish and share my love for it and my stories and experiences I
will hopefully spread my passion for Spanish to other students
and therefore intrinsically inspire them.
I want to have a classroom where I employ many ideas,
theories, and strategies of how to teach a foreign language and
how to keep my students motivated to learn. I do not want to be
afraid to try new approaches or teaching techniques. I want to be
constantly evolving like my students. For in the end, we are all
still learners.
If I live up to these ideals not only will I become a better
teacher, but my students will benefit from me being a better
teacher. From that, just maybe I will be able to help a future
generation of teachers to become more passionate about their
subject content as well as being a motivator for them to find out
what motivates their students, and as my research shows that is
Motivation and Student Achievement 60
one of the best strategies to do because it will help improve
their students’ grades.
Summary
In chapter five, I summarized my study, presented
recommendations for others, and discussed my plan of action for
future teaching based on the findings of this study.
Motivation and Student Achievement 61
Appendix A
Questionnaire
1. Why did you choose to study this foreign language?
2. What motivates you in the foreign language classroom?
3. Do you have someone to practice the language with
outside of school?
4. What would help you to become more motivated in the
foreign language class?
5. What helps motivate you? (ex: candy, extra credit,
etc.?
Motivation and Student Achievement 62
Appendix B
Motivation and Student Achievement 63
Appendix C
Running head: WHAT MOTIVATES STUDENTS
What Motivates Students in a Foreign Language Classroom
Lisa Wierzbicki
ED 715
Pilot Study
10/20/05
Motivation and Student Achievement 64
Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study was to find out what motivates
students in a foreign language classroom. I wanted to understand
if the students in a select Spanish class were more intrinsically
or extrinsically motivated to study the language. I also wanted
to know what specific strategies (i.e. extra credit, candy, etc)
motivated these students to learn the language.
Problem Question
Throughout this quarter I have been studying the motivation
of students in a specific foreign language classroom. The
students at my placement range from extremely motivated to not
even turning in their homework. While this teacher is
enthusiastic about the subject, some of the students are just not
interested. The reason I want to address this problem is because
I want to be the best foreign language teacher I can be. My goal
is for my students to walk away with an interest in Spanish. In
order for this to happen, I want to study what motivates these
students. I also want to find out how to motivate the unmotivated
and how to keep the enthusiastic motivated. This study centers on
discovering what actually motivates the students in a Spanish
classroom, and what could be done to motivate more students.
Research Question
Baseline Question:
Motivation and Student Achievement 65
1. Are students in a specific foreign language classroom
more extrinsically or intrinsically motivated?
2. What strategies help motivate students in a specific
foreign language classroom?
Intervention Question :
1. What different strategies motivate more students in a
foreign language classroom?
Data Collection Methods
I employed a variety of data collection methods throughout
my study. These methods included: a questionnaire, passive
informal conversations with teachers, and active observations in
the specific Spanish classroom. The following section explains
why I chose each data collection method for this study.
Questionnaire: I used the questionnaire in order to find out
from the students themselves what motivates them in the
foreign language classroom as well as what would help them
become more motivated. The students were asked what
motivates them in a foreign language. They were also asked
what would help them to become more motivated in the foreign
language classroom. As well as why they chose to study the
language, and if they have someone who speaks the language
so they can practice outside of school. See Appendix A for
an example of the questionnaire.
Motivation and Student Achievement 66
Conversation: Another method that I used was informal
conversations to find out what motivational strategies work
the best for the teachers at my placement. In these informal
conversations I asked the teachers what strategies really
work in a traditional classroom setting? Through these
informal conversations I was able to discover what my
teachers thought was the best strategy for motivating
students and some teachers even supplied which strategy
never seemed to work in their classrooms.
Active Observation: A third data collection method I used
was active observation. I actively observed the students of
this specific foreign language classroom for a week. In this
time I: was in charge of running an extra credit game,
observed the interactions between the students, and helped
out the students when they had problems with the lesson for
the day. I actively observed to find out how students react
to different motivational strategies and how they affect the
students’ motivation.
In order to find out what strategies motivated students I
employed all three of these methods throughout September and
October 2005. I used the questionnaire to find out what
strategies motivate students. By using informal conversations
with the teachers at my placement I was able to find out what
strategies they think best motivate their foreign language
Motivation and Student Achievement 67
students. Through active observation I was able to observe which
motivational strategies work in the foreign language classroom.
Data Analysis Method
In the course of my research and data analysis I defined the
following codes: Motivated, Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic
Motivation, and Strategies.
Motivated: According to Ryan, Richard M. and Deci, Edward L.
(2000), “To be motivated means to be moved to do something…
someone who is energized or activated toward an end is
considered motivated.”
Intrinsic Motivation: Also according to Ryan and Deci
intrinsic motivation, “refers to doing something because it
is inherently interesting or enjoyable.
Extrinsic Motivation: Is also defined by Ryan and Deci who
state, “refers to doing something because it leads to a
separable outcome.”
Strategies: Through my research I have defined strategies as
the activities used to motivate students. Some examples
consist of candy, extra credit, and games that are played in
class.
In order to analyze these data I read all twenty-five
questionnaires returned by the students and then I decided which
responses were most common. Then I went back and tallied the most
common responses from the students’ questionnaires. I also
Motivation and Student Achievement 68
reviewed my notes from the informal conversations I had with the
teachers at my placement, as well as reviewed my active
observation notes.
Results of Analysis
“What different strategies motivate more students in a foreign
language classroom?” After analyzing the data that I collected
for my research I have narrowed down the best strategies to
motivate the students of a specific foreign language classroom.
To analyze my observation notes, questionnaire answers, and
conversation notes, I applied the inductive codes of intrinsic
and extrinsic motivation. To further analyze the questionnaires,
I found which responses were most common and tallied the number
of times that response was found and produced percentages.
The majority of the students were extrinsically motivated.
These patterns were found in analyzing questionnaire answers.
Seventy-six percent of the students were motivated by the
usefulness of the language in a job in the future. Seventy-two
percent of the students were motivated by extra-credit. However,
only forty-eight percent were motivated by candy, thirty-two
percent were motivated by in class games, and twenty-eight
percent were motivated by pressure from parents. This pattern
demonstrates that the majority of the class was motivated through
future use of the language and extra-credit, which are both
Motivation and Student Achievement 69
extrinsic motivators. This is best illustrated in the following
figure, Figure One.
Figure One: The following is a bar graph that demonstrates
the number of students who cited: usefulness, extra-credit,
candy, games, and parental pressure as motivators in the foreign
language classroom. The bars represent the number of students out
of twenty-five who cited those motivators.
Another type of example of the pattern lies in the
questionnaire itself. One of the students who cited future
usefulness is stated: “I know that in the U.S., the second most
common language is Spanish. So speaking it might help get a job.”
An example of extra-credit as a motivator comes from another
student’s questionnaire which says: “The teacher is very funny
and all his extra-credit opportunities motivate me.” On the other
end of the spectrum a student who cited parental pressure in
their questionnaire stated: “Well, I’m plenty motivated, because
if I fail (C or lower) my dad will rip my lungs out through my
Motivation and Student Achievement 70
nose.” These are different types of example of the pattern I
found in my research about motivational strategies in a foreign
language classroom.
Concluding Statement
Overall, I regret not having more time to perform this study
in other classes. I feel like a sample size of one foreign
language class is not sufficient enough to come to a definite
conclusion. If I had more time to do my study I would be able to
come to a clearer conclusion. I believe the topic of motivational
strategies in a foreign language classroom warrants further
study, so I can learn how to become a more effective and
motivational foreign language teacher for my future students.
Motivation and Student Achievement 71
References
Bräuer, G. (Ed.). (2001). Pedagogy of language learning in higher
education. Westport: Ablex.
Blaz, D. (1999). Foreign language teacher’s guide to active
learning. Larchmont: Eye on Education, Inc.
Dörnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and motivating in the foreign
language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 78,
No.3, 273-284.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language
classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic
motivations: classic definitions and new directions.
Contemporary Educational Psychology, Vol. 25, 54-67.
Motivation and Student Achievement 72
Appendix A
Questionnaire
6. Why did you choose to study this foreign language?
7. What motivates you in the foreign language classroom?
8. Do you have someone to practice the language with outside of school?
9. What would help you to become more motivated in the foreign language class?
10. What helps motivate you? (ex: candy, extra credit, etc)