Lubasa, Nti N’Seendi; (1986) Motivation and perseverance in language learning : materials for speakers of other languages. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Motivation is often perceived as a crucial factor for learning to take place; but paradoxically very little is said about it in terms of content for teaching and/or learning materials. Usually researchers suggest, and teachers use methods and approaches that would serve as motivational factors. This practice is quite analogous to developing one's grammatical or linguistic competence and expecting communicative competence to follow or result from it. The present study is an investigation of ways in which motivation can be incorporated into a language syllabus and subsequently in learning materials in terms of sociocultural, psychological and linguistic content as well as being a by-product of methodology and textbook structure, through the approach labelled 'SP-squared' or (SP)2. The approach is designed to tackle the learners' learning problems from the learners' pOint of view (or from a social psychological perspective and for the purposes for which learning has been undertaken). To this end, the notion of 'PERSEVERANCE', conceived as the learners' ability' to deal with a 'crisis point' and to organise and/or reorganise their motivation as troubles occur, is exploited to suggest that although motivation is important or even crucial for learning to take place, it needs the support of perseverance without which learning (either formal or informal) is unlikely to take place. The study actually shows that motivation is not all that crucial for learning to take place. Rather Perseverance is, as this is what sustains 'Activity-enjoyment' and subsequent motivation and the strategies that the learners require to solve their learning problems. This finding leads to the conclusion that motivation can profitably be exploited in learning materials (which are shown to include the teachers and the class) if, and only if, they train the learners as 'persevering inquirers'. This can be achieved by means of 'guidance' seen as the essential characteristic or indeed criterion of any SP-squared approach.

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