Student Motivation, Foreign Language Bandwagons and Instructional Realities.

A word of caution is needed about the tendency of language teachers to seize on simplistic and unproven solutions to complex problems. For example, the concept of individualization, when it is limited to having students work in isolation to fulfill mechanically-prescribed objectives, should be questioned. The so-called "systems approach" to foreign language learning simply attempts to do more efficiently the same depersonalizing things that caused the educational problems. If the learning experience is to have any permanent value for the student, he must perceive what he is learning as intimately involved with his own self-fulfillment. Student interest and motivation are the keys to success. Foreign language teachers have in the past made the mistake of introducing too much content at too fast a rate. Textbooks should be used as basic resources rather than as basic curricula, and undue emphasis must not be placed on the quantity of material a teacher covers. Students must be given a chance to do something with the language they are learning, to use it instead of simply memorizing it. Teachers must choose course content on the basis of the following three questions: (1) Is it a genuine sample of cultural and linguistic material? (2) Does it fit the student's level of maturity and intellectual development? (3) Will the student find it interesting and worthwhile? (PP)