Identity and motivation
- Students’ personal identity is linked to their use of language and languages.
- Students’ identity is also linked to their motivation to learn.
- Identity is a critical issue for many young Pasifika people.
- Schools and teachers have a role to play in minimising identity conflicts for the students by strongly supporting their first languages and cultures.
Personal identity is linked to motivation in learning. Both affect learning in general, and language learning in particular. (See the video clip Advantages of bilingualism .)
Who you feel you are or want to be motivates you to do or learn certain things. It motivates you to use the same language as the groups you want to be part of.
Spolsky (1989, page 15) identifies four major groups of factors affecting second language learning. They are:
- knowledge and skill, including knowledge of the first and other languages
- various abilities
- various affective factors, such as personality, attitudes, motivation, and anxiety
- opportunity to learn the language – including the range of situations.
