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Sustaining Motivation inLanguage Teaching 
Due to the vital role of motivation in achieving the success of language learning, it is 
one of the teacher' responsibilities to keep his/her students interested and motivated 
in learning. For this end, the language teacher needs to know the factors affecting the 
motivations of their students in learning and to understand areas where they can 
directly influence the students' continuing participation in the classroom activities. 
Harmer (2001:52) points out that there are four factors which can influence the 
students‟ motivation to do the task of learning English as they form part of the world 
around students' feeling and engagement with the learning process. First, the society 
where the students live in. The extent to which the social attitudes to language 
learning and the English language, in particular, will determine and influence the 
students' attitude to the language being studied which in its turn have a profound 
effect on the degree of motivation the student brings to class. Second, the people who 
are close to them such as parents, older siblings, and peers. The students' attitude to 
language learning will be greatly affected by the influence of those people. Third, the 
teacher who is considered as a major factor in the continuance of a student‟s 
motivation. The teacher's attitude towards the language and the task of learning will 
be vital to the students' motivation for learning English. Fourth, the method which is 
vital to create confidence for both teacher and students in the way teaching and 
learning take place. Once both teacher and students are comfortable with the method 
being used, success is much more likely. 
As students who come to the class to learn have a range of motivation, some of 
them may come with strong motivation, and some others may come with weak 

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Lalu Thohir 
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motivation, it is the teacher's responsibility to direct and increase students' motivation 
in order to keep their continuing participation in classroom activities. According to 
Harmer (2001:53), there are three areas in which teachers can directly influence the 
students‟ motivation. The first is goals of learning: students' goal in learning consists 
of long-term, such as the passing of an exam and the probability of a better job in the 
future, and short-term goals, such as the successful writing of an essay, the passing of 
the progress test at the end of the week. As the long-term goals often seem too far 
away, it is much easier to focus on the end of the week than the end of the year. If the 
teacher can help students in the achievement of short-term goals, this will have a 
significant effect on their motivation. The second is a learning environment. It 
involves the classroom physical appearance and the emotional atmosphere of the 
lesson. The teacher can decorate even the most unattractive classroom with all kinds 
of visual material, and the teacher also can still change the atmosphere through such 
things as the use of music.When students walk into an attractive classroom at the 
beginning of a course, it may help to get their motivation for the process going. 
However, creating and sustaining the emotional atmosphere is more important than 
decorating the classroom.The third is an exciting class. To continue to be 
intrinsically motivated, the students need to be interested both in the subject they are 
studying and in the activities and topics they are presented with. The teacher needs to 
provide the students with a variety of subjects and exercises to keep them engaged. 
The choice of the material to take into the class will be crucial too, but more 
important than this will be how it is used in the lesson. 
There are some other essential means which a language teacher needs to do to 
promote the right classroom emotional atmosphere and to arouse the motivation of 
students for learning. Giving positive feedback and providing autonomous learning 
can be an essential means of sustaining students' participation in classroom activities. 
Brown (2000:77) states that the positive feedback that learners perceive can be a 
boost to their feelings of competence and self-determination which in its turn can 
increase or maintain their intrinsic motivation. Providing positive feedback according 
to Richards (2007:188) may serve not only to increase motivation but also to build a 
supportive classroom climate and to let learners know how well they have 
performed. In order that feedback is positive, Westwood (2009:70) urges that the 
feedback should come in the form of descriptive praise (i.e., well done, good job, and 
others.) if the student's work is good. On the other hand, if a student's work is 
incorrect, the teacher should provide immediate correction to help remove the 
misconception and to supply accurate information. However, the most important 
thing in giving feedback is that it should be delivered in a positive emotional tone, 
not with annoyance or frustration. 
Regarding learner autonomy, Brown (2000:77) states that if the learners are 
given an opportunity to do language for their reasons of achieving competence and 
autonomy, they will have a better chance of success than if they become dependent 

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VISION: JOURNAL FOR LANGUAGE AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING
on external rewards for their motivation. There are various techniques or activities 
which language teachers can adapt to enhance learner autonomy at the same time to 
promote learner-centered learning. Farrel & Jacobs (2010:19-20) represent several 
means of enhancing learner autonomy such as promoting collaborative learning (i.e. 
through the use of small group and pairs), encouraging a life-long reading habit (i.e. 
through the use of extensive reading or student-selected reading) and self-assessment 
as the sole judge of the language learners' strengths and weaknesses. The idea for 
self-assessment is for language learners to develop their internal criteria for the 
quality of their work, rather than being independent on external evaluation or 
evaluators. 
As different forms of extrinsic motivation can have positive or negative effects 
on intrinsic motivation, Sell (2008:263) encourages that, wherever and whenever 
possible, teachers to emphasize two forms of positive extrinsic motivation – 
identification (the process by which students begin to internalize the value of their 
behaviors and to accept them as their own) and integration (the process by which 
students identify with the behaviors performed, fully endorse them, and integrate 
those behaviors with other aspects of the self). In contrast, Sell urges teachers to use 
sparingly, if at all, two forms of negative extrinsic motivation – external regulation 
(the process by which student behavior is controlled by specific external 
contingencies such as rewards and punishments) and introjection (the process by 
which student behavior is controlled by creating guilt or shame)