Intrinsic motivation and lessons from an old-aged English learner

As we talked in class about various teaching principles, motivation and its effects on learner achievement, I was reminded of a short YouTube clip that some of my friends shared with me a couple of months ago and which had made me think a lot about my own English learning experience.

The following clip was shot by an American tourist during his trip to Vietnam in March 2007. Coincidentally, Barry (the tourist) is from Minnesota. The 5-minute clip featured a short conversation between the Minnesotan visitor and an old Vietnamese man who sold postcards in Ben Thanh market - the biggest marketplace in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon), Vietnam.

(Please click on the play button to watch the clip - If you have difficulty watching it directly on the blog, follow this link You Tube - Meet Bill from Saigon, Vietnam)



The first time i watched the clip, i must say i was amazed by this old man's English, the brilliant and lively spoken language that is hardly taught in any language classes. He may not be 100 % grammatically correct but is perfectly intelligible, which is one of the most important features of good communicative competence. As i sought for the reasons to explain the man's incredibly good use of English, the things that first came to my mind was his strong motivation to learn the language and the willingness to communicate in English. As he said in the clip, he loved American accent, watched a lot of American movies and readily incorporated spoken phrases that he heard in the movies into his daily conversations with foreign customers. In this old-aged learner's English learning process i could see the presence of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Clearly he learned how to speak English in order to sell postcards and earn money to support his disabled daughter, but that alone could not have enabled him to speak English with the American accent nor master the use of conversational phrases such as "No sweat!" or "What's up, man?" It was the inner motivation, the desire to learn, the love for the language and the culture (in this case the movies) that drove him to his present state that was captured in the clip when he could speak fluently in English with the "American accent". Added to this, the power of intrinsic motivation in this old man is much more strengthened when we consider the miraculous fact that he learned English all by himself without going through any official language instruction! Obviously, social pressures, teacher evaluation or peer pressure exert no weight on this learner.

Though Bill's learning condition and style are very special and different from the majority of language learners, the investigation into his English learning process did make me think a lot about the power of self-motivation in learning a foreign language, and how the willingness to communicate can fasten learner's acquisition. Truly speaking, from my experience, many young English language students in Vietnam who have spent years learning English at school do not have the fluency in speech as this self-taught adult learner does. This puts into question the role of language teachers, the teaching activities, the textbook and many other pedagogical features in creating and maintaining positive motivation in students.

As I looked up this short clip of Bill on YouTube, i came across the sad news: he passed away last month in Saigon because of pneumonia. After the Minnesotan tourist posted this clip on YouTube, Bill became famous and many foreign tourists who came to Saigon went to Ben Thanh market to have a chance to talk with him. That's why the news of his death was passed fairly quickly. Bill is no more, but I believe his lively and admirable English learning experience will remain a good inspiration for many English language students who are lucky to be receiving formal language instruction.