2025-05-09
11 分钟In language learning, process is the reward, that sense of achievement,
that sense of, wow, I understand things that I didn't understand before.
All of these things can give us a sense of enjoyment.
Is motivation a myth in language learning or is it a necessary condition of success?
That's what I'm going to talk about today with reference to The Motivation Myth by Jeff Hayden,
a popular book.
Obviously, motivation is a key to language learning success.
Motivation and time spent with the language, I often say that.
What does it mean?
is not just saying, I am motivated to learn a language.
I am motivated to become fluent.
I am motivated to make money.
You don't get there by being motivated by the final goal.
Motivation is something that feeds on itself.
It feeds on a sense of achievement, a sense of success, a sense of reward.
And I'm going to talk about some of these things.
I'm going to talk about seven key factors in acquiring motivation and maintaining motivation in language learning.
You know, I was struck by the fact that here in Vancouver, not many people learn foreign languages.
In fact, very often, if I speak to someone in whom I come across in a store or somewhere in,
you know, Chinese, Persian, Spanish, whatever, people will often ask me, where are you from?