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The Role Of Motivation In The Acquisition Of Phonetic Sounds
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Bassett-Jones and
Lloyd (2005:920) suggest that “motivation is concern with how behaviour
gets started, is energized, is sustained, is directed, is stopped and
what kind of subjective reaction is present in the organism while all
these are going onâ€. Although Young (2000:1) is of the view that
motivation can be defined in a variety of ways, depending on whom you
ask – ask someone on the street, you may get a response like “it is what
drive us†or “it is what make us to do the things we doâ€, but the truth
is that motivation is geared towards achieving a desired aim and every
human being is compelled to exhibit a particular behaviour/attitude
depending on whether the motivation is positive or negative.
According
to the FREE Online Courses on Motivation, positive motivation induces
people to do work in the best possible manner to improve their
performance. This suggests that better facilities and rewards are
provided for improved performance. For instance, when a father tells his
son, “if you study well and get high grades in your examination, I will
buy you a new bicycleâ€. Negative motivation aims at controlling
unlawful behaviour and seeks to instill a sense of fear (punishment) in
individuals.
Phonetics as earlier stated is part of language, and we
cannot do away with it especially as it relates to this research work.
Ogayi (2005:1) sees phonetics as “the study of language sound
production, the quality of sound produced in terms of phonetic
environment in which they occur and the perception of such soundsâ€. In a
similar notion, Nwankwegu and Nwodc (2012:11) posit that “phonetics is
that which describes how sounds are produced (articulated); how they
travel in the air as sound waves and how they are perceived through air.
Since
phonetics involves the production, transmission and perception of
sounds, it then follows that the correct pronunciation of sounds is a
basis for efficient communication in English language, as in any other
language. It is a behaviour that every normal human being should strive
to accomplish on daily basis so as to foster good communication between
those in our community and the society at large.
Interestingly, Johnson and Kozikowska (2009) examined the importance of a good knowledge of phonetics and state thus:
“Phonetics
is such an important tool for learning and teaching of foreign
languages. it facilitates the ability to hear, understand and produce
different sounds. It stirs up the correct pronunciation of sounds. When
it is used inappropriately, it can lead to misunderstanding and even
complete communication breakdown between speakers coming from two or
more different linguistic backgrounds. Phonetics provides data for
phonology. Although these two are closely related to each other, but
understanding phonology without a good knowledge of phonetics is almost
impossible, because phonetics feeds phonology with data which is then
used in exploring the sound patterns of a language. It avails one the
opportunity to represent (transcribe) words the way they are spoken so
as to communicate with the world at largeâ€.
The acquisition of
phonetic sounds is achievable through motivation. Yusuf (2006:36)
rightly says “iii second language learning as in every other field of
human learning, motivation is the crucial force, which determines
whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes
to it, and how long he perseveresâ€. This work will examine the role of
motivation in the acquisition of phonetic sounds among the Ebonyi State
University students in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Motivation plays a very important role in enhancing the students’ pronunciation learning. Consequently, the researcher’s argument is that motivation is necessary for one to learn and acquire a second or foreign language because most successful learners of a second language are motivated to do so. Hence, this research work highlights the role motivation plays in the acquisition of phonetic sounds among the Ebonyi State University students. The researcher examines the concept of moti ... Continue reading---
