Motivation in language learning in target language environment

Nowadays summer camp programs are increasingly popular among university students in Hungary and all over the world. This kind of popularity can be attributed to the opportunities such a stay offers in terms of language learning in native, English speaking environment. There are several factors which can help to improve the language competencies  and skills during a short period of time in the target language environment. In this environment we can experience the opportunity of incidental learning, we can realize how motivation can effect our langauge learning intentions and what difficulties we have to deal with during language learning. My question on this topic is the following: What factors and motivation influence how much someone will be able to improve their English language competence in the target language environment such as an American summer camp?

Incidental learning can be connected to language learning in US summer camps as it is a way of acquiring language while staying in a target language environment. The term ’incidental learning’ refers to the process of acquiring language, especially expressions and words, in an unintentional way, as a result or secondary product of other activities. Picking up an unknown word without any effort from a conversation, a song, from movies or series while watching them with subtitles or from reading a text is an excellent example of incidental learning.

Generally, incidental learning can happen in many ways, for instance through observation, repetition, social interaction, and problem solving. Incidental learning can lead to several positive outcomes for the learners, such as changed attitudes, improved skills, rise in interpersonal competence, extended self-reliance and self-consciousness. It is safe to say, then, that language learners can also enhance their vocabulary and other language competencies indirectly by reading, watching movies and series also by subtitles, listening to songs, and participating in communication with others in English, all of these are possible during a stay in a summer camp in the United States of America.

Motivation is one of the most important elements a language learner should have according to Littlewood. Motivation determines how long a learner keep learning, how much energy he dedicates to learning and it also determines the components a learner needs. We can talk about two types of motivation Littlewood thinks are especially important for language learning, these are instrumental and integrative motivation.

We can differentiate between integrative and instrumental motivation although most learners are motivated by a mixture of these two types of motivation. In this case when a learner is interested in the second language community and wants to learn their language to communicate with the native speakers and to gain closer contact with them we can talk about integrative motivation.

Instrumental motivation occurs when a learner is more interested in gaining a neccessary qualification or has further goals with a second language. Learners with higher integrative motivation usually achieve greater proficiency level. Considering the psychological barriers of communication, I feel the need to mention the emotional climate of learning situations also. The target language environment, like an American summer camp, might cause learners to feel anxious and insecure or constrained because their limited communicative competences may make them feel less able to present their own selves appropriately. Some people become more anxious than others, might experience failure in their communictaion efforts and their sense of alienation in the foreign environment may be increased, and even seemingly easy situations get extremely difficult. In this case people need to re-learn the conventions of daily life in the new culture. This process of ’relearning’ is called acculturation, or culture shock. Once the participants arrive in the target langugae environment, they start to undergo the process of cultural adjustment.

First of all, an essential distinction needs to be made between language learning and language acquisition on the basis of Krashen’s theory. According to his conception, learning and acquiring are separate ways of gaining knowledge. While learning is a conscious effort to obtain information, acquisition is usually subconscious; moreover, its results are not always perceivable, that is why it is hard to measure. Krashen states that “acquisition now appears to play a far more central role than learning in second language performance. Our ability to use second languages comes mostly from what we have acquired and not what we have learned”. Krashen identified several factors that can have an effect on second language learning but in thi case, in an American summer camp probably the Input Hypothesis and the Affective Filter Hypothesis are the most relevant ones.

The first factor is called the Input Hypothesis. The idea suggests that acquisition can happen in only one way and this is by accessing comprehensible input. When input is comprehensible it means that learners are able to interpret the essence of what was presented to them. According to the hypothesis, languages can be acquired mostly through understanding messages and since these messages contain the rules of language, while understanding them, people will simultaneously and sub-consciously figure out these rules and learn how to use them that is, acquire the rules themselves, too.

Krashen claims that all the above mentioned are important, though they are not always enough to promote language acquisition. For this problem, he says, the Affective Filter can be blamed. Usually several factors can generate this barrier, among which lack of self-confidence, high anxiety level, and low motivation are the most common. The Affective filter will be low in a summer camp if the participants have mostly positive feedback and a helping hand from natives, and if their proficiency level is high enough so they can more or less confidently function in the native environment, and if they have fun.

Hulstijn, H. (2013). Incidental learning in second language acquisition. In C.A. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Littlewood, W. (1984). Foreign and Second Language Learning. Language acquisition research and its implications for the classroom, 53-59.

Krashen, S. D. (1985). Inquiries & insights. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Alemany Press.