Rosemary Curtis

LLT 361
Fall 2014
Language Learning Experiences Essay
Introduction
Throughout my education so far, I have had the opportunity to focus on learning
two languages. Throughout most of grade school, kindergarten through high school, I
spent a significant amount of time studying Spanish. As a college student at Michigan
State University, I have spent my time studying Russian. Throughout this essay I will
discuss my experiences learning these languages in relationship to the pedagogy and
individual differences discussed in this course so far.
Motivation
The first, and arguably one of the most important factor Im going to discuss in
learning a second language is motivation. Motivation is defined as the desire or effort that
the student has toward learning about a particular topic, in this case a second language.
There are a variety of different types of motivation that students can experience. Robert
Gardner of the University of Western Ontario organizes motivation in to two categories.
Gardner argues that there is integrative motivation, which occurs when the learner is open
toward the target languages culture and wants to interact with the group of people. The
second type of motivation, according to Garder, is instrumental motivation. Instrumental
motivation is the type of motivation that occurs when learning the language is a means to
an end. In other words, the learner has a specific goal that the target language will help
him or her to accomplish. In my language learning, I would say that when I was learning

Spanish my motivation fell more into the instrumental motivation category. I remember a
specific conversation I had with my parents in middle school when I was trying to decide
whether or not to continue taking Spanish in high school. My parents love to travel, and
in this conversation they told me that if I continued to take Spanish all through high
school that they would take me on a trip to Spain. So my desire to study Spanish in high
school came not from a personal desire to be able to integrate into the culture, but was
rather a way to reach my goal of travelling. I would say that my motivation for studying
Russian falls into both categories. I hope to live in Russia some day, and so Id like to be
able to speak the language in order to interact and have successful social interactions with
Russians and that falls into integrative motivation. But I also plan to use the language as a
way to help me get a job, and so that falls into the instrumental motivation category.
A second way to organize motivation is into the categories of intrinsic versus
extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation occurs when the student desires to learn the
language for person reasons or interests. Extrinsic motivation is when the student desires
to learn the language as a result of external influences. In the previous paragraph, I
discussed my reasons for taking Spanish and Russian. My motivation for studying
Spanish would fall into the external motivation category because my desire to learn came
from my parents request. My motivation for studying Russian would fall into the internal
motivation category because my learning is primarily a result of my own desire to study
the language. However, I must admit that on the day-to-day basis, my Russian language
learning often also falls into the category of external motivation because I tend to be
extremely focused on my grades, an external influence.

While I have had successful and high grades in all of my Spanish and Russian
language grades, I feel like these grades arent always perfectly reflective of how
successfully I have actually learned the language. Its often too easy to memorize
information for a test, only to forget it before long, this would be an example of
instrumental or extrinsic motivation. Overall, I would say that my learning has been most
successful when my motivation is intrinsic and integrative because it is at these times that
I am most personally invested in my learning.
Anxiety
Another important factor that can influence second language learning is anxiety.
Anxiety occurs when someone feels nervous, worried, or stressed. There are two different
types of anxiety. There is trait anxiety and situation anxiety. Trait anxiety is the
consistent levels of anxiety a person has, while situation anxiety is the anxiety that occurs
as a result of a specific situation. Anxiety can either be helpful to the language learning or
can harm the students learning. More often than not, anxiety is detrimental to the
students learning to speak and listen to the target language. Ive found that I have a lot of
anxiety when it comes to language learning, no matter what the language. Im
particularly anxious when it comes to speaking in front of the class, however Im less
anxious to speak with close friends. Ive found that Im more likely to be successful in
speaking when Im less anxious. I also tend to get anxious before tests and quizzes in my
language learning courses, but I believe that this anxiety actually improves my test scores
because the anxiety pushes me to study harder and work harder during the actual test.
Language Learner Strategies

Language learner strategies are defined as thoughts and/or behaviors that the
student uses in order to improve his or her understanding of the language, these strategies
can either be conscious or only semi-conscious. Language learning strategies serve a
multitude of purposes including to improve the students learning, help with particular
tasks, solve problems, close a gap in learning, or just make learning more fun.
There is a multitude of language learning strategies that in general fall into the
categories of metacognitive, cognitive, affective, and social. Generally, metacognition is
when a learner thinks about his or her own learning. So in the case of language learning,
metacognitive strategies are when the learner plans his or her studying/learning process
and then evaluates his or her own learning. I most often use strategies in this category
when Im planning my schedule to make sure I have enough time to study and when I
decide the best way to study for a particular event. For instance, I know to plan enough
time to make and then use flash cards because Im aware of how helpful I find flash cards
in learning vocabulary words. The awareness and planning itself is considered to be the
metacognitive strategy, not the process of making flash cards.
Cognitive language learning strategies occur when the learner is able to store and
then receive aspects of the language, such as words, phrases, or grammar rules. In the
previous paragraph, I discussed my knowledge of the use of flashcards to learn
vocabulary words. Studying with the flash cards would be considered a cognitive
language learning strategy. Often times learners will associate words in the target
language with words in their native language or even images to help remember them. I do
this frequently when Im struggling to remember a vocabulary word. For example, just
last week I was studying for a vocabulary quiz in my Russian language course and one of

the words I needed to memorize was the verb to be mistaken. In Russian, this word
sounds vaguely like oh she bad, which reminded me of the colloquialism, oh my bad
that people used to use to say that something was their fault. Associated the Russian word
with the English phrase helped me to remember the vocabulary word. Another example
of when I have done this occurred three years ago when I was learning colors in Russian.
To this day, I remember the word for white because it sounds like the word belly and
makes me think of a persons pale belly.
Affective language learning strategies occur when a learner is able to control his
or her emotions and motivation to improve his or learning. An example of this would be
strategies that a learner uses to reduce stress or anxiety. Typically, when I get really
nervous before a test (written or oral), Ill spend a lot of time studying right before the
test. However, I always make sure to spend the last two to five minutes doing something
unrelated, such as checking Facebook or playing a game on my phone. I do this because I
know that it helps me to calm down and center myself before I have to take the exam.
This time helps me to take the anxiety or otherwise stress induced emotions and point
them toward productivity.
The last type of language learner strategies that Im going to discuss falls into the
category of social language learner strategies. These are strategies that the learner uses to
intentionally interact with native speakers or other learners. I think that this is the
language learning strategy category that I struggle with the most. I tend to be a shy and
introverted person, and as Ive already discussed I get anxious when speaking in front of
a group or someone I dont know. Most often, I use this strategy with my roommate, who
is also a Russian language student, because we are comfortable speaking and practicing

the language with each other. We recently have decided that we are going to only text
each other in Russian, and have done so with mild success. There are times when we
forget or struggle to convey a concept in the target language. I have found that my
language learning does improve greatly when I interact with other learners or native
speakers, but its still something that I struggle to do.
Conclusion
Individual differences are extremely important to language learning and can
drastically impact a learners success. Ive discovered in my language learning that
intrinsic and integrative motivation pushes me to work harder towards being successful in
the language. Im aware that I have a lot of anxiety when it comes to practicing the target
language orally and aurally, as well as before tests. I also use a variety of language
learning strategies including metacognitive, cognitive, affective, and social but I struggle
the most with the social language learning strategies.

Word Count: 1674 words