The Impact of Motivation on Students’ Desire to Want to Learn a Second Language

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether holding students to higher standards, rewarding desired behavior, teaching interesting content, and creating student-to-teacher relationships would have an impact on students’ motivation to want to learn Spanish in a Spanish 3 H class of 19. The study used a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest design to determine whether students’ motivation would increase as a result of the strategies. The measurement tools involved a posttest/postsurvey designed by the researcher and two documents to track students’ participation and homework completion. The study began at the end of February and was interrupted mid-March due to the shutdown of schools in Maryland. Because of the school closure, no significant improvement was recorded for motivation as the researcher did not have adequate time and a proper school environment to fully implement the strategies. The results of this study are inconclusive due to the fact that there was a pandemic and the researcher did not have any means to conclude the study. The mean participation rate increased by a statistically significant and practically significant amount from pre to partially implemented post. The homework completion rate for Tinita also improved by a statistically significant amount from pre to partially implemented post.