A. Why do people learn language?

The reasons people have for learning languages and the reason for
their success as language learners. There are number of different reasons for
language study and the following list will give an idea of the great variety of
such reasons.
a. School Curriculum; The greatest number of language students in the
world do it
b. Advancement; it

offers

a chance for advancement in

their

professional lives.
c. Target language community; is one where the inhabits speak the
language which the students is learning.
d. English for specific Purposes; applied to situations where students
have some specific reason for waiting to learn the language.
e. Culture; they want to know more about the people who speak it
f. Miscellaneous; some people do it just for fun
People involved in language teaching often say that students who
really want to learn will succeed whatever the circumstances in which they
study. All teacher can think of situation in which certain motivated students
do significantly better than their peers; students frequently succeed in what
appear to be unfavorable conditions; they succeed despite using methods
which experts consider unsatisfactory.
Motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to
pursue a course of action. Language learners who are motivated perceive
goal of various kinds. In general, strongly motivated students with long term
goal are probably easier to teach than those who have no such goal. Kind of
Motivation separate into two main categories: extrinsic motivation, which is
concerned with factors outside the classroom, and intrinsic motivation, which
is concerned with what takes place inside the classroom. It has been
suggested that there are two main types of such motivation;
a. Integrative motivation

Students need to be attracted by the culture of the target language

community, and in the strong form of integrative motivation they
wish to integrate themselves into that culture.
b. Instrumental motivation
This term describes a situation in which students believe that
mastery of the target language will be instrumental in getting them
a better job, position or status. The language is an instrument in
their attainment of such a goal.
We can consider factors affecting intrinsic motivation under the
heading of physical conditions, method, the teacher and success.
a. Physical conditions
It is clearly the case that physical conditions have a great effect on
learning and can alter students motivation either positively or
negatively.
b. Method
The method by which students are taught must have some effect on
their motivation
c. Teacher
Whether the student likes the teacher or not may not be very
significant. What can be said, though, is that two teachers using the
same method can have vastly different result.
The children showed what their learning priorities were by putting
these qualities in the following order;
1. He makes his course interesting
2. He teaches good pronunciation
3. He explains clearly
4. He speaks good English
5. He shows the same interest in all his students
6. He makes all the students participate
7. He shows great patience
8. He insists on the spoken language
9. He makes his pupils work
10. He uses an audio lingual work
The Students were also asked to list any additional qualities they
thought were important. The most popular were:

He shows sympathy for his pupils.

He is fair to all his students (whether good or bad at English)
He inspires confidence.
d. Success
Success or lack of it plays a vital part in the motivational drive of a
student. Both complete failure and complete success may be demotivating.

B. What a native speaker knows

Native speakers (or competent users of the language) know how to say
a word that is how to pronounce it. This knowledge is made up of three
areas, sounds, stress and intonation.
On their own the sounds of a language may well be meaningless. If you
say Itl (the lines show that this phonetic script) a few times, e.g. tu. tu,
tu it will not mean very much in English. Neither will the sounds /k/, /a/, or
/s/. But if we put all these sounds together in a certain order we end up
with the word cats and that does mean something.
All words are made up of sounds like this, and speakers of a language
need to know these sounds if they are to understand what is said to them
and be understood in their turn. Some of the problems that speakers of
English as a foreign language have are precisely because they have
difficulty with individual sounds for example the Spanish speaker who
says bery instead of very or the Japanese speaker who says a word
which sounds like light instead of intended right.
When they use the word native speakers know which part of that word
should receive the heaviest emphasis. For example, in the word
photograph not all the parts are of equal importance. We can divide the
word into three parts: pho, to, and graph. Competent speakers of the
language will say the word like this, /PHOtograph/, stressing the first
syllable. The situation changes with the word photographer where the
stress shifts to the second syllable, i.e. phoTOgrapher. Stress in words
also changes depending upon a words grammatical function: perMIT is a

verb, but PERmit is a noun, and the same is true of the words imPORT
and IMport, for example.
The changing use of stress is also one of the areas of knowledge that
competent language speakers have. For example if I say I can RUN I am
probably only talking about my ability to run. But if I say I CAN run I am
probably stressing the word can because somebody is suggesting that I
am not able to run and I am vehemently denying it. In the same way if
someone said to you Is this your PENcil? it might well be a simple
question with no hidden meaning, but if the question was Is this YOUR
pencil? this might suggest that there was something very surprising
about your ownership of the pencil.
Native speakers of a language unconsciously know about stress and
how it works. They know which syllables of words are stressed and they
know how to use stress to change the meaning of phrases, sentences and
questions.
Closely connected with stress is intonation, which means the tune you
use when you are speaking, the music of speech.
Intonation means the pitch you use to change that pitch. Do you use a
high pitch when you say a word? Does your voice fall or rise at the end of
the sentence? For example, if I say Youre from Australia, arent you?
starting my question at the medium pitch of my voice range and dropping
the pitch at the end of the sentence (on arent you) this will indicate to
other

competent

speakers

of

English

that

am

merely

seeking

confirmation of a fact about which I am almost completely certain. If, on

other hand, I say the same question with my voice rising in the end, i.e.
Youre from Australia, arent you?
This might well indicate that the question is a genuine one and I am
asking the listener to satisfy my doubts about their nationality.
Intonation is a big indicator of involvement as well. If I tell what I
think is a fascinating story and my listener says How interesting, starting

at a low pitch and dropping their voice on in of interesting I will be fairly

despondent since by their use of pitch and intonation they will have
plainly told me that they did not think much of my story. High pitch and a
small fall, on the other hand would me much nicer, since that would
indicate that my audience was fascinated by what I had to say. Intonation
is clearly important then, and competent users of the language recognize
what meaning it has and can change the meaning of what they say
through using it in different ways.
C. What a language student should learn
when we teach English we need to be sure that our students can
be understood when they speak. They need to be able to say what they
want to say. This means that their pronunciation should be at least
adequate for that purpose.
Students need to use rhythm and stress correctly if they are to
be understood. Students need to be able to recognize intonation at the
very least they need to recognize whether the tune of someones voice
suggest that the speaker is sure or uncertain.
Students need to learn, nothing that some grammar was
necessary for lower level students while some was more stylistically
appropriate to advanced level. Students to learn the vocabulary which
was appreciate for their level and stressed the importance learning
vocabulary in context.
Syllabuses are organized and measured the relative merits of
grammar, vocabulary, functions, situations, topic, and task as the main
organizing principle round which a syllabus could be designed.
The teachers variety of English might be the main one for the
students whereas for more advanced students knowledge of many
varieties is a definite advantage.