L2 Motivation

 (interim) DEF: Motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate L2 learning and later the driving force to sustain
the long and often tedious learning process.

 Without sufficient motivation, even individuals with the most remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long-term
goals, and neither are appropriate curricula and good teaching enough on their own to ensure student achievement

 High motivation can make up for considerable deficiencies both in one’s language aptitude and learning conditions

 Motivation to learn an L2 presents a particularly complex and unique situation even within motivational psychology,
due to the multifaceted nature and roles of language itself.
 Language is at the same time:

a. A communication coding system that can be taught as a school subject

b. An integral part of the individual’s identity involved in almost all mental activities

c. The most important channel of social organisation embedded in the culture of the community where it is
used.

 Knowing an L2 also involves the development of some sort of ‘L2 identity’ and the incorporation of elements from
the L2 culture.
 In addition to the environmental and cognitive factors normally associated with learning in current educational
psychology, L2 motivation also contains featured personality and social dimensions.

Four phases of L2 motivation research

1. The social psychological period (1959–1990) - characterized by the work of Gardner and his students and associates
in Canada.

2. The cognitive-situated period (during the 1990s) - characterized by work drawing on cognitive theories in
educational psychology.

3. The process-oriented period (turn of the century) - characterized by an interest in motivational change, initiated by
the work of Dörnyei, Ushioda, and their colleagues in Europe.

4. The socio-dynamic period (current), characterized by a concern with dynamic systems and contextual interactions.

Social-psychological period

 1970s, Gardner and Lambert, social psychologists working in bilingual Canada

 ‘students’ attitudes toward the specific language group are bound to influence how successful they will be in
incorporating aspects of that language

 This was a radical new approach – the study of L2 motivation required the supplementation of traditional
motivation research – which used to focus entirely on the individual – with social psychological insights and
methods concerning the relationship between the L1 and L2 communities

 Gardner (1985:10) defines L2 motivation as ‘the extent to which an individual works or strives to learn the language
because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity’.
  Motivation subsumes three components:
o Motivational intensity
o Desire to learn the language
o Attitude towards the act of learning the language
 Motivation is a central mental ‘engine’ or ‘energy-centre’ that subsumes effort, want/will (cognition), and task-
enjoyment (affect)
 The motivation ‘engine’ can be switched on by a number of motivational stimuli such as a test to be taken or an
involving instructional task.
 The source of the motivating impetus is relatively unimportant provided that motivation is aroused.

Integrative/instrumental confusion

• Gardner’s theory does not merely consist of a dichotomy of integrative and instrumental motivation.

• ‘Motivation’ in Gardner's theory does not contain any integrative or instrumental elements. There does exist an
integrative/instrumental dichotomy in Gardner’s model but this is at the orientation (i.e.goal) level, and as such, is
not part of the core motivation component.

• The two orientations function merely as motivational antecedents that help to arouse motivation and direct it
towards a set of goals, either with a strong interpersonal quality (integrative) or a strong practical quality
(instrumental).

Cognitive period

• Characterized by two interrelated trends:

a. the need to bring L2 motivation research in line with cognitive theories in mainstream motivational psychology

b. the desire to move from the broad macro perspective of ethnolinguistic communities and learners’ general
dispositions to L2 learning to a more situated analysis of motivation in specific learning settings (e.g. classrooms).

• Focus on motivation in L2 instructional contexts, integrating cognitive motivation concepts from the education field
(e.g., intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, attributions) and developing more extensive theoretical frameworks without
discarding social-psychological perspectives altogether.

Process-oriented period

 Unstable nature of motivation during the learning process, whether during engagement in a task, through
successive lessons, or across the broader time span of a course of study
 A basic first step in analyzing motivation from a temporal perspective is to clarify the conceptual distinction
between motivation to engage in L2 learning (choices, reasons, goals, decisions), and motivation during
engagement (how one feels, behaves and responds during the process of learning)

The Dörnyei and Ottó Model of L2 Motivation

 Three distinct stages in motivated behaviour:

1. Preactional stage (choice motivation)

2. Actional stage (executive motivation)

3. Postactional stage (evaluation)

Preactional stage

 The main focus of the preactional phase is the generation of motivation, which includes setting goals, forming
intentions and initiating intention enactment.
 Main motivational influences:
o Various goal properties ( e.g. goal relevance, specificity and proximity)
o Values associated with the learning process itself, as well as with its outcomes and consequences
o Attitudes towards the L2 and its speakers
o Expectancy of success and perceived coping potential
o Learner beliefs and strategies
o Environmental support or hindrance

Actional stage

 The main focus of the actional phase is the maintenance and protection of the generated motivation
 Main motivational influences:
o Quality of the learning experience (pleasantness, need significance, coping potential, self and social image)
o Sense of autonomy
o Teachers’ and parents’ influence
o Classroom reward- and goal structure (e.g. competitive or cooperative)
o Influence of the learner group
o Knowledge and use of self-regulatory strategies (e.g. goal setting, learning, and self-motivating strategies)

Postactional stage

 The postactional phase begins either when the goal is accomplished or when the action is discontinued. The most
important process taking place at this stage deals with postactional retrospection and evaluation.

 Main motivational influences:

o Attributional factors ( e.g. attributional styles and biases)

o Self-concept beliefs ( e.g. self confidence and self-worth)
o Received feedback, praise, grades
The process model of L2 motivation has two key shortcomings:

1. it assumes that we can define clearly when a learning process begins and ends

2. it assumes that the actional process occurs in relative isolation, without interference from other actional
processes in which the learner may be simultaneously engaged.
Socio-dynamic period

• A move towards more dynamic contextual paradigms for the analysis of motivation, where the relationship
between individuals and context is conceived of in terms of complex and dynamic organic systems emerging and
evolving over time.

• A focus on the situated complexity of the L2 motivation process and its organic development in interaction with a
multiplicity of internal, social, and contextual factors – that is, a move toward relational or dynamic systems
perspectives on motivation.

• A concern to theorize L2 motivation in ways that take account of the broader complexities of language learning and
language use in the modern globalized world – that is, by reframing L2 motivation in the context of contemporary
theories of self and identity.

• Central concept is the ideal self, signifying the attributes that one would ideally like to possess (i.e. a representation
of personal hopes, aspirations, or wishes).

• If proficiency in the target language is integral to one’s ideal or ought-to self, this will serve as a powerful motivator
to learn the language because of our psychological desire to reduce the discrepancy between current and future
self states.

• Key issues concern how such self images develop and evolve in interaction with the complex constellations of
internal and contextual processes shaping engagement in learning, represented as a third component (L2 learning
experience) in the L2 Motivational Self System.

1. How can the intrinsic/extrinsic motives established in motivational psychology be related to the general orientations
(instrumental and integrative) developed in L2 research? Give specific details and examples of situations.

2. By promoting self-motivating strategies the ownership of motivation passes in part from the teacher to the students:
learners assume responsibility and regulatory control of their own motivational disposition. Listed below are self-
motivational strategies proposed by Dörneyi. For each category think of practical examples of how the strategies might be
implemented. How do you make yourself study?

 Commitment control strategies for helping to preserve or increase the learners’ original goal commitment
 Metacognitive control strategies for monitoring and controlling concentration, and for curtailing unnecessary
procrastination
 Satiation control strategies for eliminating boredom and adding extra attraction or interest to the task
 Emotion control strategies for managing disruptive emotional states or moods, and for generating emotions that
are conducive to implementing one’s intentions
 Environmental control strategies for eliminating negative environmental influences and exploiting positive
environmental influences by making the environment an ally in the pursuit of a difficult goal