Class Meeting Reflection: Week 10

Tuesday, October 23, 2007:

Class Discussion of Motivation in L2 Learning

Motivation has always played a crucial part in Second/Foreign language (L2) learning research since it came to the scene almost 50 years ago. Through many years of development, L2 motivation researchers have contributed a great amount of literature to this interesting yet challenging area of investigation. The problem is, despite the available scholarship and the awareness of the key role motivation plays, most L2 teachers and learners, including many of us in this class, I believe, have never been able to fully understand its nature. This chapter, therefore, was especially beneficial for us as language teachers and future researchers in that it gave us an opportunity to explore further into the components that constitute the often-talked-about notion of L2 learning motivation. For a summary of the main points in the chapter, please reread Masaki’s preview posted on September 3, 2007 on our class blog.

To better prepare participants for the discussion, the facilitators (Ben, Masaki, and Ky) had posted an L2 motivation literature review on the class blog. Then in class, the first thing they did was to have participants brainstorm in groups to answer three questions about motivation, namely its definition, its role in L2 learning and teaching, and possible ways to motivate L2 learners. This was a good way to activate participants’ knowledge and lead them into the topic. In giving out their own definition, most groups came up with something quite close to famous reseachers’ (e.g., Gardner, 1985; Crookes & Schmidt, 1991), using key words such as “desire”, “orientation”, and “goal”, etc., which showed that they had comprehended quite well chapter 7 in Dr. Ortega’s book.

In discussing Wilga Rivers’ (1997) famous statement “Motivation springs from within; it can be sparked, but not imposed from without”, the class came to a unanimous decision that this is very true about the essence of motivation. Earlier in her definition, Samantha stressed the term “innate” when describing motivation, which sparked a few disagreements from other class members and Dr. Ortega because, as they asserted, although motivation is something that begins from within the learner, it is not what they were born with but instead could develop along the course of learning.

In order to refresh participants’ knowledge of motivation from the reading, the facilitators then had the class work in 4 random groups to discuss and summarize the most important points of major parts of the chapter which included antecedents of motivation, self-determination theory and intrinsic motivation, EFL learners’ orientations and attitudes, and dynamic motivation. The group discussions and reports greatly benefited all class members because it not only provided a chance for them to review what they have read in the chapter but also helped to identify points that needed clarifying, which was immediately provided by Dr. Ortega and other participants in their follow-up comments.

Because many class members are interested in pedagogy, and also because there was unanimous agreement with Dornyei’s (2001) idea that “teacher skills in motivating learners should be seen as central to teaching effectiveness”, the last part of the class discussion was dedicated to pedagogical applications of methods to bring motivation into the L2 classroom. The facilitators provided 4 L2 classroom scenarios for which participants will have to work in groups to come up with effective ways to motivate their students. Following are the situations:

• You are teaching an EFL course in an Asian country. The students in your class almost always speak their native language both in and out of class. How would you motivate them to use English?

• You are teaching EFL in an Asian high school class and you want to bring Communicative Language Teaching (TBLT, CBLT, etc.) into your classroom, but your students are strongly resistant to the approach because their goal is to pass the university entrance exam and what they want to learn are grammar and test preparation. How would you motivate them to learn English communicatively and accept your approach?

• You are teaching Academic Writing at the ELI of an American university. The international students in your class didn’t choose to be there but they “had to”. Because these students think their English is good enough and due to their busy class schedule, they don’t participate very actively in class activities and often neglect their homework. How would you motivate them?

• You are teaching an ESL course twice a week at a community school for adult in Honolulu. Some students don’t come to the class very often and even if they do, they don’t participate in class activities as actively as you expect. How would you motivate those students?

Before this activity was carried out, there had been concern about whether there would be enough time, but the class finally insisted that the discussion be done in class that day and the reports be saved for the following meeting. As predicted, we ran out of time and the groups were therefore asked to bring their ideas back for class reports on Thursday, which, unfortunately, could not come true due to the lack of time in the following session.

All in all, the class discussion activities were well received by class members. It is undeniable that these activities have helped to consolidate and enhance participants’ knowledge of motivation in L2 learning. It is also beneficial for participants, many of whom are and will be L2 teachers, that activities to promote pedagogic applications of L2 learning motivation were brought up for discussion and reflections. I am sure the knowledge we gain from this chapter will go with us for the rest of our life.

Thursday, October 25, 2007:

IRB & Application for New Approval of a Study Involving Human Subjects

Application for IRB clearance is a complicated process, especially for student researchers who have very little experience in doing so. Dr. Ortega’s handout of the application and detailed explanation of the steps were therefore more than appreciated in the second class meeting of this week. Following is a brief summary of the main points of notice

- Project title: Make sure it is the same as your paper’s title.

- Start date: Don’t confuse this with application date. It’s a good idea to type “as soon as I get clearance from IRB” into this space instead of a specific date. Remember the start date can’t be earlier the application date!

- Summarize your proposed research. Outline objectives and methods: Word this section as a plan, i.e., use the future tenses where appropriate. In as few words as possible, try to convey the reason(s), purpose(s), and research method(s) you will use.

- Summarize all involvement of humans in this project: In this section, words such as “ideally”, “about”, “up to”, etc. should be used when referring to the number of humans involved. You should also include the frequency and procedure of involvement.

Tip: If you teach a class and do something for your teaching purpose (survey, evaluation, activities, etc.) and later want to include some of those data into the study, it is wise not to mention that in the application.

- Describe mechanism for safety monitoring: If you have any specific way to protect the privacy of participants, list them here. Useful phrases include: “there are no risks”, “voluntary”, “no names will be used”, “data will not be identifiable”, etc.

- Benefits to each human subject or to mankind: Be realistic when you write this section. It is a good idea to give participants some small remuneration, and don’t forget to include that information in this part. However, benefits of significant financial value can risk your chance of getting the clearance as they may think you are trying to “buy” participants.

In general, IRB procedures are often complicated, but it is necessary and you will have to do that sometime before your graduation (e.g., when you write your SP, thesis, or dissertation, not to mention articles for presentation at conferences and/or publication). Because your professors/advisors will have to be responsible for your application, it is important to let them know of your intention and ask them to help revise your application before submitting it.

Finally, please join me in thanking Dr. Ortega for providing us with very very helpful information and valuable advices.

Also, thank you all for your active participation in the class discussion