Improving Student Motivation and Attitudes in Learning English as a Second Language; Literature as Pleasurable Reading: Applying Garner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Krashen’s Filter Hypothesis

Abstract:

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Literature is an essential tool for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching that provides students with an opportunity to practice language skills. Literature further helps students to explore the various facets of language, such as grammar, vocabulary, spelling, intonation, stress, and pronunciation. This article applies Garner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Krashen’s Filter Hypothesis to clarify how motivation and other attitudinal factors affect a learner’s ability to learn English as a Second Language while proposing an alternative perspective for English language learning. The concepts discussed in this article, therefore, address the attitudinal factors that affect a learner’s understanding of English by utilizing four elements: 1) motivation, 2) attitude, 3) anxiety, and 4) self-confidence as a way to demonstrate how, rather than through vocabulary overload, the literary experience in English as a Second Language teaching can be improved for students through pleasurable reading.