It is often said in the research literature on second language acquisition that two key factors behind success are aptitude and motivation . I have posted before about aptitude here. In this post, I'm lifting and adapting some sections sections about motivation from our handbook The Language Teacher Toolkit (Second Edition). I have not listed the references at the end of this post - they are part of the ample bibliography in the handbook. Motivation has been considered over the years from various perspectives, all of which cast light on the topic and can help language teachers provide the best conditions for learning. below are some of those perspectives. 1. Instrumental and integrative motivation Gardner and Lambert coined the terms instrumental motivation (language learning for more immediate or practical goals, such as mastering basic conversation for a professional role) and integrative motivation (language learning for personal growth, cultural enrichment and a desire to
A feature of our new GCSE workbook, is the inclusion at the end of each unit of two 'sentence banks', one Foundation, one Higher. These lists of translated sentences would be familiar to teachers who like to use parallel text knowledge organisers. Below is an example from Part Two of our new workbook, coming in a few weeks. It's Foundation Tier set from the unit about education and future plans. Items in bold are more challenging structures which go beyond simple, one clause present tense sentences. The Higher senetnce banks contain more of these. Je vais à l’école à pied. I go to school on foot. Il y a 800 élèves à mon école. There are 800 pupils in my school. Je porte un uniforme scolaire ; c’est pratique. I wear a school uniform; it’s practical. J’ai cinq cours par jour. I have five lessons per day. Les cours commencent à neuf heures. Lessons start at nine o’clock