Language Learning Essay: Motivation and Bilingualism’s Impact

Exploring the Depth of Bilingualism: Research Insights on Motivation and Cognitive Growth

Robert, C. & Wallace, E. (1972). Attitudes and Motivation in Second-Language Learning. The book uses a summary of a 12-year research program that mainly focused on second language acquisition as well as the different factors that can affect students’ academic achievement. The authors also focused on how different students have different skills while learning new languages, specifically students who were learning French and English. The authors first hypothesized that in order for a learner to succeed in learning a language, they must be prepared to adopt different factors of other linguistic groups.

The book contains a summary of the different approaches that the author took, as well as their research reports that are supported by data. The participants were students from Louisiana, Maine, Connecticut, and the Philippines. All in all, the book can be considered to be quite relevant and specific, as the study took 12 years to complete. It also focused on different people learning two different languages. Zeev, S. (1977). The Influence of Bilingualism on Cognitive Strategy and Cognitive Development. Child Development, 48(3), 1009-1018. This study explores how bilingual children are more prone to developing coping strategies that eventually help improve their cognitive skills. The study included three main hypotheses; the first claimed that children who acquire two languages at an early age process syntactic rules more flexibly.

Learning a New Language: Delving into Motivational Factors and Educational Dynamics

The second hypothesis was that bilingual children had limited vocabulary. Whereas the third hypothesis was that bilingual children develop a stronger sensitivity to nonverbal structures. The research studied two groups of bilingual children and two monolinguals. Tests included Similarities, Digit Span, Picture Completion, and Picture Arrangement. Ultimately, results showed that the bilingual groups were more verbally advanced and were able to have more complex and flexible perceptions of different situations. The research can be very helpful as it can be used as a motivational factor for students who are willing to learn a second language. Zaman, J. (2015).

Role of Motivation in Second Language Learning: A Study of Private University Students in Bangladesh The study was conducted to show the different scenarios of motivation in second language learning as well as its different factors. The author connected the different perspectives scholars had on motivation along with the influence of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. In addition, the study then analyzed how teachers play in role in motivating students. The student participants were chosen from four private universities. Moreover, the author asked the students to answer a questionnaire in order to evaluate their measure of motivation. As a result, the author was able to have suggestions on how to improve motivation in second language learning. Furthermore, it seems that such a study is important in the linguistics field as motivation plays a key role in language acquisition. However, the study only relied on a questionnaire which makes it not completely accurate.  

References:

1. Zeev, S. (1977). The Influence of Bilingualism on Cognitive Strategy and Cognitive Development. Child Development, 48(3), 1009-1018.

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