Motivation and Second Language Acquisition

Shaila Ahmed
Senior Assistant Professor
Dept of English

American International University Bangladesh

Risala Ahmed
Assistant Professor
Dept of English

American International University Bangladesh

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Abstract
This article presents a comprehensive discussion on “Motivation & Second Language
Acquisition.” It defines motivation and analyses its theories from several perspectives. It
also encompasses the ideas of improving language competency by focusing the positive
and adventitious aspects of motivation. Finally, the article concludes with the implication
of further research in the field of motivation which bears the potential of bringing
revolutionary changes in Second Language Acquisition.

Definition of Motivation
Gardner defined motivation in his social-psychological model as "the combination of
effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitude
toward learning the language." It is an inner state or condition that power up behavior and
gives it direction, a desire that energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior, an influence
of needs and desires on the intensity and direction of behavior, and the arousal, direction,
and persistence of behavior. Student motivation naturally has to do with students' desire
to participate in learning. But it also concerns the reasons or goals that underlie their
involvement in academic activities. Although students may be equally motivated, the
source of their motivation may be different.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
In general, motivation can be considered as either intrinsic (behavioral, needs) or
extrinsic (cognitive and humanistic, reinforcement). Intrinsic motivation is generally
possessed by people having persona interest (s) in doing something and helping to set
their goals. People are intrinsically motivated not because accomplishing the activity they
do brings a reward, but because doing the activity itself is a reward. Mark Lepper notes
that a student with intrinsic motivation participates in his / her learning "for its own sake,
for the enjoyment it provides, the learning it permits, or the feelings of accomplishment it
evokes." The feelings of competence and self-determination are significant factors of
intrinsic motivation. According to Deci, one must feel a sense of self-determination as
well as that of competence through interaction with others to perceive that he/she takes
the initiative in his/her own action and not to feel that someone forces her / him to do so.
Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, derives from an anticipation of rewards such as
praise, awards, prizes, and evaluation, and fear for punishment. An extrinsically
motivated student does the activity "in order to obtain some reward or avoid some
punishment external to the activity itself", and this kind of motivation "refers to learning
situations where the reason for doing a task is something other than an interest in the task
(or broader learning endeavor) itself. In addition, undertaking the task may be something

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the person feels pressured to do rather than genuinely wants to do ". There are some
negative aspects of extrinsic motivation. Deci and Ryan state that learners will lose
motivation and reason to do something when rewards are no longer available, and that
giving external rewards to them previously with intrinsic motivation can harm the good
effect of it. However, researches show that extrinsic motivation is effective for those with
no motivation, and when it is positive feedback.
Comparing these two types of motivation in a classroom, it becomes clear that intrinsic
motivation produces more potential benefits than does the extrinsic. Intrinsically
motivated students tend to try harder and think more deeply. It is also found by
researchers that they tend to prefer "i +1" when others tend to choose easier tasks.

Theories of Motivation
There are a number of theoretical frameworks some of which could help teachers
understand student motivation in the field of SLA. In this review, I would like to choose
and categorize them into 4 groups: behavioristic, cognitive, psychoanalytic, and
humanistic, and refer to the general ideas in each of them.

Behavioristic
Behavioral psychologists, the best known of whom is BFSkinner, explain motivation as
reinforcement theory. Behavior is shaped and sustained by the consequences the
individual receives. Thus, with positive reinforcement, behaviors can be maintained, and
with negative reinforcement, they can be reduced or eliminated. By the nature of these
approaches, they emphasize extrinsic rewards and punishments, and seem counter to the
objective of increasing students' intrinsic motivation by increasing their control over
learning.

Contiguity
Guthrie's contiguity theory specifies that "a combination of stimuli which has
accompanied a movement will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement".
According to Guthrie, all learning is a consequence of association between a particular
stimulus response. Furthermore, Gurthrie argued that stimuli and responses affect specific
sensory-motor patterns; what is learned are movements, not behaviors. Rewards and
punishment play no significant role in learning since they occur after the association
between stimulus and response has been made. Learning takes place in a single trial
(all or none). However, since each stimulus pattern is slightly different, many trials may

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be necessary to produce a general response. One interesting principle that arises from this
position is called "postremity" which specifies that we always learn the last thing we do
in response to a specific stimulus situation.

Classical (Respondent) Conditioning
Classical conditioning was the earliest type of learning discovered and studied within the
behaviorist tradition as its name shows. The major theorist in the development of
classical conditioning is Ivan Pavlov. Skinner renamed this type of learning "respondent
conditioning" since in this type of learning, one is responding to an environmental
antecedent. Pavlov explained that Classical conditioning is Stimulus (S) elicits>
Response (R) conditioning since the antecedent stimulus causes the reflexive or
involuntary response to occur. Classical conditioning starts with a reflex: an innate,
involuntary behavior caused by an antecedent environmental event. No new behaviors are
learned. Instead, an association is developed between the Neutral Stimulus and the
Unconditioned Stimulus so that the learner responds to both events and stimuli in the
same way; restated after conditioning, both the US and the CS (Conditioned Stimulus)
will cause the same involuntary response.

Operant (Instrumental) conditioning
This theory of Operant Conditioning theory of BF Skinner is based on the idea that
learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of
an individual's responses to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment. A response
produces a consequence such as defining a word, hitting a ball, or solving a math
problems. When a particular Stimulus-Response (SR) pattern is reinforced (rewarded),
the individual is conditioned to respond. The organism can give forth responses instead
of only eliciting response due to an external stimulus. Reinforcement is the key
element in Skinner's SR theory. A reinforcement strengthens the desired response. It
could be verbal praise, a good grade or a feeling of accomplishment or satisfaction. The
theory also includes negative reinforcement (punishment) that result in the reduction of
undesired responses.

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Social Learning
The Social Learning theory of Bandura emphasizes the importance of observing and
modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others. Bandura states:
"Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to
rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately,
most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others
one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and no later occasions this coded
information serves as a guide for action. "Social Learning theory tells us that if learners
see enthusiastic teachers, they will tend to model these behaviors. If they see their peers
rewarded and recognized for being dedicated learners, they will model their behaviors.

Cognitive
Information Processing
GEORGE A. Miller has provided two theoretical ideas that are fundamental to the
information processing framework. The first concept is "chunking" and the capacity of
short memories. Miller presented the idea that short-term memory could only hold 5-9
chunks of information where a chunk is any meaningful unit. A chunk could be digits,
words, or people's faces. The second concept is TOTE (Test-Operate-Test-Exit)
suggested by Miller, Galanter & Pribram. They suggested that TOTE should replace the
stimulus-response as the basic unit of behavior. In a TOTE unit, a goal is tested to see if it
has been achieved and if an operation is performed to achieve the goal; this cycle of test-
operate is repeated until the goal is eventually achieved or abandoned.

Cognitive Dissonance
According to Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance theory, there is a tendency for learners to
want consistency in their cognitions. When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or
behaviors (dissonance), something must change to get rid of the dissonance. In the case
of a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior, it is most likely that the attitude will
change to serve the behavior. Dissonance occurs most often in situations an individual
must choose between two opposite beliefs or actions. This theory applies to all
situations involving attitude formation and change. It is especially relevant to decision-
making and problem-solving.

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Attribution
One of the most commonly accepted theory in the psychological field is this "Attribution
theory" dealing with the effect of cognition against motivation suggested by Weiner. He
explains the way people look at their success or failure and attribute the causes to the
events. The causes are categorized into four basic causes: ability, task difficulty, effort,
and luck according to two viewpoints: stability (stable or unstable) and locus of control
(internal or external).

Humanistic
Humanistic psychology tells that the mind is strongly influenced by determining forces in
society and in the unconsciousness, and that some of these are negative. But it
emphasizes the independent dignity and worth of human beings and their conscious
capacity to develop personal Competence and self-respect.

Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's work specifies that people have a hierarchy of need ranging from basic need for
survival and safety to higher-level needs for self-esteem and self-actualization. The
lower-level, more basic needs must be fulfilled in order for the individual to be able to
move on to the higher-level needs. Understanding the five needs descried in Maslow's
hierarchy is very important for teachers in recognizing students' state of motivation.

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Achievement Motivation
Achievement motivation theory, a valuable framework for understanding motivation in
school, was developed by David McClelland. He found that some learners prefer
challenging and moderately difficult tasks. They attempt to succeed in them, seek
feedback, and always measure their own success. McClelland's work showed important
variation in the extent to which learners have and show needs for achievement. He also
found, however, that most learners can be taught to increase their focus on achieving
designated results. He worked with students, providing training in which they learned to
set specific objectives and measure their progress toward these objectives. His work was
similar to that of other researchers who have studied ways to foster a sense of "personal
agency" in learners by helping them to establish and achieve realistic goals.

Motivation in Second Language Acquisition
The most dominant work in SLA studies of motivation has been done by Gardner and his
associates. In his socio-cultural approach, attitudes play an important role. He stated
that "motivation to learn a second language is influenced by group related and context
related attitudes, interactiveness and attitudes toward the learning situation respectively".
A person who has positive attitudes to the target culture and people is thus considered
well-motivated. In general, Gardner's model of integrative / instrumental motivation
precisely describes the particular features of motivation in SLA.

Integrative Motivation
Gardner's idea was developed from Mower's idea that to be like a valued person is
important in individual development. Gardner and Lambent described the motivation as
wanting to be esteemed and identified in a foreign setting, to be like the foreign people, to
understand the culture and participate in it, and called this concept "integrative
motivation". Integrative motivation is basically a motivation to be a member of a target
society in a foreign setting but it also includes a motivation coming from just an interest
or a favorable feeling to a target culture or people. McDonough noted that there are
two types of integrative motivation; "assimilative motivation", strong motivation to
"belong" to the target group, and "affiliative motivation", weak motivation and a desire
for wider social contact with target language speakers. Dickinson notes: Gardner's
"Integrative attitude, with its emphasis on learning the target language because one
wishes to associate with or integrate with the speaker of the language, can be perceived as

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a subject-specific example of intrinsic motivation. Learners with an interactive attitude
have a compelling purpose for learning which is intrinsic to a target language ". Learners
who are interactively motivated seems to have a strong intrinsic motivation to learn a
language.

Instrumental Motivation
Gardner and Lambert described "instrumental motivation" as a motivation to acquire
some advantages by learning a second language. A learner with instrumental motivation
regards language as an instrument to get a reward. Though "Instrumental motivation"
also influences second language learning, "to the extent that an instrumental motive is
tied to a specific goal", "its influence tend to be maintained only until that goal is
achieved." "On the other hand, if the goal is continuous, it seems possible that an
instrumental motivation would also continue to be effective ".

Conclusion

Motivation is one of the crucial factors which determine the success of language learning.
Intrinsic motivation is the most fundamental motivation, which is derived from the
feeling of being competent and self-determinant. People are motivated to be approved by
others and to feel competent. Whereas intrinsic motivation is essential for successful
language learning, it does not seem sufficient itself, and intrinsic motive is mediated by
"cognition" and "society", which is when motivation occurs within self. Some ideas to
foster motivation to learn in the classroom are suggested: (1) teachers should view
learners as "active socialization agents capable of stimulating ... learner motivation to
learn", (2) classroom climate should be valued, (3) various task dimensions work, tasks
should be moderately challenging and yet achievable, (4) tasks with specific, short-term
goals can help learners to success, (5) teachers should offer extrinsic rewards with
caution. As the study of motivation in SLA is relatively recent movement, many more
researches and applications will take place for further understanding this subtle and
ambiguous area. Teachers will want to look for them to get learner motivation fully
activated both in classroom and their individual lives.

Reference
Dörnyei, Zoltán (2002) Motivation and Second Language Acquisition. Second Language
Teaching & Curriculum Center, University of Hawaii.

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Dörnyei, Zoltán (2003) Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning:
Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications. Wiley.
Ushioda, Ema (2009) Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Self. Multilingual
Matters/Channel View Publications
Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen (2006) Themes in SLA Research. John Benjamins Publishing
Company
Ellis, Rod (1994) The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press.