The Role of Motivation and Controversial Conceptual Material in Foreign Language Classrooms

Abstract

According to ACTFL's (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) sample progress indicator, 12th graders should be able to: . [...]to promote relatedness, a teacher must encourage unity within the class and emphasize that all the students are working together as a team to reach increased Spanish fluency even if there are varying opinions: every student-to-student interaction represents an opportunity for output and intake, and controversial conceptual material only acts as the subject to inspire such conversation. According to Weiner, one of the forefathers of attribution theory, (1980), the individual will attempt to explain their successes and failures based on personal ability, exerted effort, difficulty of the task, and luck (41). According to Albert Bandura, one of the most renowned experts about self-efficacy, an individual that lacks a feeling of capability, even if they have the capacity, will experience little incentive to perform a task: "...human motivation..[is] based more on what an individual believes than on what is objectively true.