Opinion | 2 Essential Keys For Learning a Second Language: Motivation and Strategies 

For some countries in the world whose citizens are not native speakers of English, English functions as the second language (ESL) and foreign language (EFL) where the culture and mother tongue that determine speaking skills are different. For countries who adopted English as a foreign language, it is not commonly spoken in daily interaction. The use of the language is restricted. Therefore, the effort to learn English should be higher, more active, and more severe than people in ESL countries. Thus, some experts suggest that learners should motivate themselves to practice constantly and intensively and are suggested to use various learning strategies which will help them in mastering this language.

Weda, et al. (2018) mentions two psychological factors in accomplishing the learning process and academic performance. These are motivation and learning strategies. “A lot of factors have contributed to the outcome of a learner’s acquisition, among them, motivation and strategy plays a significant role” (Chen & Feng, 2009). Besides, Haryanto (1998) mentions eight factors influencing the learning process: attitudes, motivation, learning strategy, teachers competence, learning material, parents role, school community, and school policy. However, from these eight aspects, he reveals that learning strategy and motivation arise as the core, whereas the others are peripheral or incidental. Bukhary and Bahanshal (2013) also reveal that the teacher must rely on their capability to enhance the students’ motivations and propose different strategies that will further develop their language learning. All these explanations demonstrate that motivation and learning strategy are essential in second language acquisition and learning, especially for the English major.

Motivation is the driving force to encourage the learner to learn. Gardner and Lambert classified motivation (1972) into two orientations: integrative and instrumental motivation. Integrative or intrinsic motivation is a desire to learn a language to communicate goals. These learners will try to find the opportunity to speak with people from the culture who speak it or identify closely with the target language group. In comparison, learners behind instrumental or extrinsic motivation will learn a language to fulfill their specific goals. It is usually for the short term, such as getting a scholarship, finding employment, or passing an examination.

While learning strategies specific actions are taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations. People do not understand everything when they are born, but they will grow with more understanding due to learning. The non-native English learners can use the language very well because they pass the process of learning. However, the degree may be different. Some people will master a specific subject quickly while the others may be slower.

Different experts classify learning strategies based on the context, although in essence, the target of classifying learning strategies has the same purpose and function. The division of strategic learning that is most widely referred to in the world is the classification proposed by Oxford (1992). She differentiates six group language learning strategies, which are divided into two main categories, namely direct strategies (memory, cognitive, and compensation strategies) and indirect strategies (metacognitive, affective, and social strategies).

Some learners may be more successful than others when learning a second or foreign language even though they are exposed to the same teaching methods and learning environment. Even though the teacher’s teaching methods are suitable and the atmosphere is supportive, when learners do not have the motivation themselves to implement appropriate learning strategies, they will not be successful in achieving learning goals.

Learners who have their appropriate learning strategies normally will have a better understanding. Besides, by employing suitable learning strategies, students’ learning methods could be more disciplined and more comfortable conditions to study. The strategies enable students to get the big responsibility to enhance their progress in developing second language skills, which includes a wide range of behavior that can help to build communicative competence in many ways.

With learning strategies, students’ learning methods could be more disciplined. They also got more comfortable conditions to study by using proper learning strategies, and students could receive more convenient ways to understand the lessons that lecturers gave them. The students have critical skills in communicating. Oxford quotes, “more effective learners showed careful orchestration of strategies, targeted in a relevant, systematic way at specific L2 tasks” (2003, p.10).