What do we know about individuals who reach native-like levels in a foreign language?
Achieving Native-Like Second Language Proficiency (Speaking) by Betty Lou Leaver is a research-based catalogue of factors that would seem to predict ability to reach the highest level of foreign language proficiency and is based on common characteristics shared by more than 200 near-native speakers, identified by self-report, survey, and interviews by master testers.
Following up on last week's post, one of the motivational frameworks considered was extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation. succeeding in foreign language study. Many individuals were both extrinsically and intrinsically motivated; each form of motivation contributed in its own way to the individual’s willingness to continue learning through near-native levels of proficiency. Roughly 88% of the interviewees identified their motivation as something that could be classified extrinsic, including 82% that were clearly instrumentally motivated; 48% identified their motivation as intrinsic. Obviously, 30% of the interviewees reported both instrumental and integrative motivation.
Extrinsic Motivation
For most individuals, extrinsic
motivators were in some way or another associated with financial rewards (e.g.,
annual bonuses for Level 4 proficiency), reputation, survival (in foreign
degree programs, in foreign work environments, or as an alternative to
something considered life threatening), better social status, and/or job
requirements (financial benefits, better social status, and job requirements
could also be classified as instrumental motivation). Not one of the respondents
said that a particular teacher’s influence or any positive motivational
techniques used in the classroom directly led to his or her long-term and
high-level success in language acquisition; in fact, several actually stated
that they continued in spite of negative teacher motivation—and, in some cases,
they had a secret goal “to prove the teacher wrong.” On the embedded checklist that queried the
level of importance of various kinds of direct instruction, none of the
interviewees checked teacher instruction, but many checked native speaker
(non-classroom) instruction. Whether this level of independence in learning—and
need to control one’s own learning—was present in these individuals from the
very beginning or reflect a natural evolution of teacher-student relationships
with increasing foreign-language proficiency has not yet been made clear by
this study.
A subset of individuals moved permanently to the foreign country. For most of the individuals in this study, the reason for the move was to be with a spouse; these individuals had married a native speaker. For them, learning the language well (i.e. to advanced levels) meant survival and wellbeing. Learning it very well, i.e. to native-like levels, meant better survival in the form of improved job opportunities, more responsible job levels, and increased pay.
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation, as reported,
took two forms: 1) a special interest in the language being taught, and 2) a
general interest in foreign languages and linguistics. In addition, there were
elements of achievement orientation and tenacity that might be considered
related to intrinsic motivation; in some cases, it was difficult to sort these
various motivations out because they were intertwined—a typical characteristic
of high-level foreign language users.
As for individual, specialized
reasons, there were almost as many reasons for special interest in the language
being learned as there were interviewees mentioning such an interest. Some of
the specific reasons give were (1) heritage; (2) interest in the literature,
science, or work-related subject for which the language was used; (3) earlier
study of related languages; where pertinent, (4) the challenge of studying a
language considered difficult; and (5) interest in learning multiple languages
of one language family.
However, not all individuals had a
special interest in the language that they had acquired. Some had been assigned
their language as young government employees and had little, if any, choice
about which language they were assigned. Surprisingly, some did not like the
language and culture they had been assigned at all, had avoided direct contact
with the culture (including travel abroad) as much as possible, and had used
immigrant communities for immersion and models. All of these individuals were
polyglots. Their high level of language aptitude (these individuals had been
identified for their ability to study foreign languages on the basis of the
Defense Language Aptitude Test, for those who began their study many years ago,
or the Defense Language Aptitude Battery, for those who began their study in
the 1980s or later), as well as generally good learning skills, might explain
their ability to succeed in learning a language that they neither chose nor
liked.
Nearly all of the interviewees had
studied several languages (although not necessarily to the point of having
attained near-native proficiency in more than one of them. The language they
succeeded in sometimes was their first foreign or second language; more often,
it was not. Some actually had reached near-native levels in more than one
foreign language, and they formed an interesting subgroup, the polyglottic
group that has been mentioned previously in this volume. All but one of the
polyglots was intrinsically motivated in language study; for some, the language
of study did not have any special significance to the learner—it was just one
of many languages. One of the interviewees had studied 16 languages and had
achieved high levels of proficiency in four of them. In the case of all these
languages for this individual, the motivation was intrinsic (but not
integrative), although there were some extrinsic/instrumental influences.
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