ROLE OF MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDES ON LEARNERS’ LANGUAGE LEARNING WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ENGLISH: AN OVERVIEW OF REVIEW BASED FACTS

Abstract

Language is a social and human means of exploration, communication and representation. Language learning begins at birth and continues through a lifetime. Learning language occurs in specific contexts such as learning a specific topic, for community participation, readiness for getting a job and other leisure activities. Acquisition of language, especially English depends on various characteristics of the learners, and among them are the motivation of the learner (McDonough,1983; Ellis, 1994) and their language attitude (positive or negative).Only when paired up with motivation, proper do attitudinal tendencies relate to the levels of student engagement in language learning, and to the attainment of the skill. Despite their similarity, language learning motivation and attitude are two different psychological concepts affecting language acquisition and success of the learners. They are accepted as closely interrelated factors and often investigated together. In the present paper, whether there is any effective and efficient relationship between language learning, motivation and attitude have been answered by providing an overview of recent advances in research on motivation and attitude. The authors have concentrated and accumulated in the past and existing theoretical models of motivational factors affecting language learning and the results of empirical researches by doing a literature review. All in all, a better understanding of students’ motivation and attitudes would help the educators, psychologists, linguists to frame and design better curriculum, devise language teaching programs that generate the attitudes and motivation most conducive to the production of more successful English learners.