Motivation and its influence on language learning

Motivation is a key factor that strongly affects learners' success or failure in language

learning. Gardner provides the following definition of motivation: " it is a combination of

effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language" (cited in Williams and Burden

1997).

There are three different types of motivation distinguished by psychologists and

methodologists:

1. Behaviouristic - motivation is seen as " the anticipation of reinforcement ", precisely rewards or even punishments (Brown 2001). Based on Skinner's ' operant conditioning' model, it is suggested that people will try to reach a goal because they perceive some reward for it. As a result this reward works as a reinforcement of behaviour. It can easily be applied in the classroom where learners achieve goals for the sake of gaining external rewards as, for instance, praise, a grade or ultimately happiness.

2. Cognitive - motivation is seen as the inner phenomena, emphasizing the power of self-reward. Ausubel presents six basic internal drives which seem to push the learners towards active participation in language learning, without dependence on external rewards. He indicates the desires not only for exploration, stimulation or manipulation but also for knowledge, activity and ego enhancement (Ausubel 1968, cited in Brown 2001:73-74).

3. Constructivist - view of motivation places further emphasis on social context as well as individual, personal choices (Williams and Burden). Each person is motivated differently and will therefore act on his or her environment in ways that are unique. These unique acts are always carried out within a cultural and social environment and cannot be completely separated from the context. Maslow specifies that people have hierarchy of needs ranging from basic needs for survival and safety to higher- needs for self-esteem and self-actualization. He sees motivation as dependent on the satisfaction first of fundamental physical necessities (air, water, food) then of community, security, identity and self-esteem, the fulfillment of which finally leads to self-actualization.

The " needs " concept of motivation in some ways belongs to all three schools of thoughts: the fulfillment of needs is rewarding, requires choices and in many cases must be interpreted in social context.

According to Gardner and Maclntyre, motivation consists of three components:

desire to achieve a goal

effort extended in this direction

satisfaction with task

It is believed that in language learning learners are motivated in different ways and to

different degrees. Some learners like doing grammar and memorizing, others want to

speak and role-play, whereas some prefer reading and writing to speaking.

Instrumental and Integrative motivation (Gardner and Lambert):

Instrumental motivation - it is learning the language for a career goal or other practical

reasons. Leraners view the foreign language as means of finding a good job, to read

technical materials or to study in the country where the language is spoken.

Integrative motivation - it is learning the language in order to take part in the culture of

its people, to be a member of the target society. Learners are interested in the culture of

the target language, they want to acquaint themselves with the target community and

become integral part of it.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation (Harmer and Brown):

Intrinsic motivation - comes from within an individual. A person might be motivated by

the enjoyment of the learning process itself or by a desire to make themselves feel better.

This type of motivation is thought to be extremely important for encouraging success.

Extrinsic motivation - derives from the anticipation of rewards and is caused by any

number of outside factors, for instance, the need to pass an exam, the hope of financial

reward or the possibility of future travel.

1

---