16 Motivation to learn is important for the students
’ success
.
The sources of motivation are complex
.
The motivation to learn is personal and comes from within an individual, yet it is influenced by some external factors
.
Frith 2001, p.3 defines motivation as the internal drive directing behavior towards some end
.
Frith also explains the components of the learning motivation into six components, they are:
a. Curiosity
Human behavior is far more complex, and people are naturally curious
.
They tend to seek something new, they find satisfaction when they can finish a puzzle, and they are curious about anything
.
Providing students with stimuli which are new but not too different from what they already know, will then
develop curiosity within the students
.
Ask the students a question which creates a problem situation rather than presenting statements of fact
.
b. Self-efficiency
Dividing tasks into chunks and providing students with early success is a method of developing confidence in the student
.
Drisscoll as cited in Frith describes this as performance accomplishments, one of four possible sources of
self-efficiency
.
17
c. Attitude
Attitude is an illusive commodity
.
According to Frith, the attitude of a student toward learning is very much an intrinsic characteristic and is not always
demonstrated through behavior
.
d. Need
The most well-known and respected classification of human need is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
.
Maslow categorizes the human needs into five levels, psychological lower-level, safety lower-level, love and belongings
higher need, esteem higher need, self-Actualization higher need
.
The importance of this to motivation is the lower-level needs must be satisfied at one
level before the next higher order of needs become predominant in influencing behavior
.
e. Competence
Competence is an intrinsic motivation for learning which is highly related to self-efficiency
.
Human being receive more pleasure when doing this well
.
External support is important for the student to achieve competence, then the achievement of competence will be the intrinsic motivation for the student
.
f. External Motivators
In order to create a stimulating environment and combat boredom, an active participation from the students is needed
.
Therefore learning strategies should be flexible, creative, and constantly applied
.
Beside a stimulating environment, grades also have a value as an external motivator
.
18
B. Review of Related Studies
Atef Saleh Al-Tamini and Munir Shuib was investigating the motivation and attitudes of the students in learning English at Hadhramout University of
Sciences and Technology HUST
.
One of the research objectives of the study was to investigate and identify the students’ attitudes towards learning English as
their language course for 2 semester in their first year
.
The research sample consisted of 81 students who studied in the academic year 2006-2007 in the
Department of Petroleum Engineering DPE at HUST
.
To collect the data, they used questionnaires and interview
.
The result showed that most of the participants had positive attitudes towards learning English language
.
There was a research conducted in Japan by Benson 1991 who surveyed over 300 freshmen to investigate their motivation and attitudes towards learning
the English language
.
The results showed that integrative and personal sets of goal were important factors in motivation among Japanese college students
.
Another study by Sarjit 1993 was carried out to investigate the language needs of the consultants at a company
.
Learner’s motivation was the main concern in the study
.
The research participants consisted of 26 consultants, one instructor and four directors
.
To gather the data, the researcher used questionnaires, interview and field observation
.
The results of the study showed that instrumental
