Unit 4 Motivation

This unit is about motivation. From my years of experience, I have found motivation is an essential and
relevant factor in English language learning. I have noticed motivation has a different impact on learner’s
behavior and learning. In this unit, we will be revising your beliefs about motivation. Secondly, we will discuss
the various types of motivation and how these can be exploited in the classroom, and third, we are going to
review some types of motivation and how these can be accomplished in the educational environment.
Competencies:

By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

• Define motivation in you own words giving specific examples to illustrate this key concept;
• Give details about the role motivation plays in language learning;
• Distinguish and explain the various types of motivation and how these can be exploited in the
classroom;
• Compare and contrast various kinds of motivation and explain how they might impact language
learning;
• Identify the types of motivation learners hold and how such information can be used for purposes
of planning and teaching;

Content of the Unit:

1. Introduction

2. Motivation: What is it?

3. The role of motivation in the learning and teaching of foreign/second

languages.

4. Types of motivation.

5. Situational motivation.

6. Motivation and tasks.

7. Motivational strategies.
 1. Introduction
In this unit, you will deal with motivation. So, let's identify what is the role of motivation is in Second
Language Learning.

2. Motivation: what is it?

“To be motivated is to be moved to do Brainstorming activity

something”

(Ryan & Deci, 2000)

What comes to your mind when you hear the word motivation?
Write the first four words that come to you and complete the

The function of education is to teach one to think following diagram:

intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus
character – that is the goal of true education -
Martin Luther King, Jr. *_____ *______
Motivation

*______ *_____
You probably wrote words such as rewards, punishments, and attitude. In educational psychology, the
definition of what it is to be motivated is quite simple: “to be motivated is to be moved to do something”
(Ryan & Deci, 2000, p. 54).
 Task 1)
“You can never
understand one language
Step 1) Answer the following questions until you understand at
least two.”
What is motivation?
- Geoffrey Willians
How do you know students can be motivated?

How motivation is reflected in their behavior?

Step 2) State 1 or 2 specific classroom situations in which you feel motivation is present and state why. Write
your thoughts in the following space, and then share with your classmates.
 3. The role of motivation in foreign/second language learning and The Works of Carl Rogers
teaching and Abraham Maslow
offered a more holistic
Parsons, Hinson, and Brown (2001, p. 28) define motivation as an important approach to learning
than those prevailing
component or factor in the learning process. Learning and motivation have the practices and focused on
the whole person.
same importance to achieve something. Learning makes us gain new knowledge
and skills and motivation pushes us or encourages us to go through the learning
process.
“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from
anyone you can; there will always come a time
when you will be grateful you did”

-Sarah Caldwell.
Task 2
Step 1) Read the article about Motivation
Gardner’s (1985) statement about the concept of motivation is related to effort, want, desire, reason for
behaviors, and the affectivity that is associated with learning a second language and has a close link with
language learning. That is; motivation in SLA refers to the extent to which the language learner strives
to achieve a particular goal (instrumental motivation) or to become an indistinguishable member of the
target community (integrative motivation). Having the desire to achieve a predetermined goal and
making an effort to achieve this goal are prerequisite factors of motivation. We cannot say that a person
who likes to learn a second language is motivated, but when he/she tries to learn a second language and
makes an effort to do so, it is possible to say that the individual is motivated by foreign language learning.
Therefore, the concept of ‘motivation’ is not a simple construct and cannot be measured only by one
measure, for instance, just by likes or dislikes.
 Gardner (1985) considers effort and desire as the prerequisites to call an individual a motivated person.
Within current L2 motivation research, the tendency is to define motivation, as a cumulative force of
motives that is “on a continuum from zero to strong” (Dörnyei, 2005, p.89). On the significance of
considering motivation as a cumulative force, Dörnyei (2009) argues that instead of conceptualizing
learner characteristics in a modular manner (i.e., in terms of distinct ID factors), further research should
try to take a systematic approach by identifying higher-level amalgams of collections of cognition, effect
and motivation that act as ‘wholes’. An example of such composite integration of distinct factors in SLA
research is Dörnyei's (2005, 2009) concept of ‘ideal’ and ‘ought to selves’.
Dörnyei (2009), proposing a broad construct of L2 motivation introduces a new L2 Motivational Self-
System. This new interpretation of motivation consists of three dimensions:
1. Ideal L2 Self is a powerful motivator to learn the second language to become a competent L2 speaker
by reducing the discrepancy between actual and ideal selves.
2. Ought-to Self, which refers to the possible self or ‘outcome self’ that the learner wants to achieve.
This can be “various duties, obligations, and responsibilities” (Dörnyei, 2005, p.105).
3. L2 Learning Experience, which concerns the immediate learning context and language learner
experience.
Step 2) Answer the following question:
What role does motivation play in Second Language Learning?
In which way do you agree or disagree with what happens in today’s classroom? Use the following space:
Your students are not always going to be excited about learning and all students will experience positive
and negative motivation. Remembering both types is useful.
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I
remember. Involve me and I learn. -
Benjamin Franklin

4. Types of motivation
.
According to Gardner and Lambert (1972), there are two types of motivation: integrative and instrumental.
Integrative motivation means learning the language with the intention of participating in the culture of its
people. Instrumental motivation suggests and implies that a learner learns the language in support of a
purpose relating to occupation or further useful motive.
Let´s complete the following task in which you will identify the different types of motivation

Task 3
Step 1) Watch the video about the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. https://youtu.be/i_ZEv-
5KAwE
Step 2) Create a similar diagram as in the video using just one page.
Step 3) Explain your diagram in front of the class and how far you agree or disagree with the ideas
using your personal or someone else’s experiences.
 Task 4)
Step 1) Watch the following video https://youtu.be/CfnFAmoVKwM
Step 2) Identify the different types of motivation there are and think about 2 specific samples of them
in your current learning-teaching situation.

Some of the examples you could have mentioned are money, food, and a star on your students’ forehead
and from there you realized how extrinsic motivation works for simpler tasks whereas for more complex
ones you require intrinsic motivation.

Now, let´s talk about Situated Motivation.

 4. Situated Motivation.
Task 4
Step 1) Read the following article.
The cognitive-situated motivational period was characterized by the intertwining influence of two broad
trends:
(a) The desire to catch up with advances in motivational psychology and to extend our understanding of L2
motivation by arguing convincingly how one thinks about one’s abilities, possibilities, potentials, limitations,
and past performance, as well as various aspects of the tasks to achieve or goals to attain (e.g., values,
benefits, difficulties) is a crucial aspect of motivation.
(b)The desire to narrow down the macro perspective of L2 motivation (i.e., the broad view focusing on the
motivational disposition of whole communities, typically taken by the proponents of the social psychological
approach) to a more fine-tuned and situated analysis of motivation as it operates in actual learning situations
(such as language classrooms), characterized by a micro perspective. (Dörnyei. 1994a; Williams & Burden,
1997).
This did not mean, however, that researchers rejected the findings of the previous period; it was generally
accepted that Gardner and his associates’ macro perspective was used to characterize and compare the
motivational patterns of whole learning communities and then to draw inferences about important issues
such as intercultural communication and affiliation, language contact, multiculturalism, and language
globalization.
Existing research (McGroarty, 2001) on L2 motivation, like much research in educational psychology, has
begun to rediscover the multiple and mutually influential connections between individuals and their many
social contexts, contexts that can play a facilitative, neutral, or inhibitory role concerning further learning,
including L2 learning. (p. 86)
Step 2) Think of an English class at your school. What suggestions can you make for improving situated
motivation in that class? Use the following space to write your reflections:

You probably mentioned an activity in which you consider the task and the material to be meaningful to you
as a learner.

Education is not
preparation for life; education is

5. Motivation and Tasks life itself. – John Dewey

Dörnyei (2002) believes that engaging in a certain task activates many different levels of related motivational
mindsets or contingencies associated with the various actional contexts, resulting in complex interferences.
From his view, the complexity of motivational mindsets and contingencies activated during task
performance feed into a dynamic task processing system that consists of three interrelated mechanisms:
task execution, appraisal, and action control.
Task execution refers to the learners’ engagement in task-supportive learning behaviors, following the
action plan that was either provided by the teacher (through the task instructions) or drawn up by the
student or the task team.
Appraisal refers to the learner’s continuous processing of the multitude of stimuli coming from the
environment and of the progress made toward the action outcome, comparing actual performances with
predicted ones or with ones that alternative action sequences would offer. The importance attached to the
appraisal process coincides with Schumann’s (1998) emphasis on ‘stimulus appraisal.
Finally, action control processes denote self-regulatory mechanisms that are called into force to enhance,
scaffold, or protect learning-specific action. Thus, task processing can be seen as the interplay of the three
mechanisms: When learners are engaged in executing a task, they continuously appraise the process, and
when the ongoing monitoring reveals that progress is slowing, halting, or backsliding, they activate the
action control system to save or enhance the action.

Task motivation can also be connected to an intriguing motivational feature examined in motivational
psychology by Csikszentmihalyi and his colleagues in great detail, the experience of flow (e.g.,
Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, 1997).

Task 5. Analyze the activity you created in the previous unit and think about what problems do you think
you and your students may have and how they may feel when participating in the activity.
 Children must be taught
how to think, not what to
think. -Margaret Mead

From this perspective, the important aspect of this line of research is that flow theory specifies the task
conditions under which flow can occur. These, according to Egbert, can be organized along four dimensions:
(1) there is a perceived balance of task challenge and participant skills during the task,
(2) the task offers opportunities for intense concentration and the participants’ attention is focused on the
pursuit of clear task goals,
(3) the participants find the task intrinsically interesting or authentic, and
(4) the participants perceive a sense of control over the task process and outcomes.
Egbert proposed that “teachers can theoretically facilitate the flow experience for students by developing
tasks that might lead to flow” (p. 513).
As you have noticed to fulfill the dimensions previously mentioned is not an easy task. I believe the next
section on motivational strategies provides an idea of how to implement those dimensions in your language
classroom
 6. Motivational Strategies

Teaching motivational strategies in the language classroom is a complex task, but one that can easily be
done by following some common foreign language teaching principles and by remembering that motivation
is one of the key factors in student successSir Frederic Charles Bartlett (1886–1969) was a British
psychologist. The schema theory was one of the leading cognitivist learning theories and was introduced by
Bartlett in 1932 and further developed in the ’70s by Richard Anderson.

Task 6

Step 1) Read the diagram with Motivational Strategies created by Dornyei2001 and Reflect upon your own
learning and teaching practice:
In which ways do you agree or disagree with the author? What strategies would you implement in your
classroom to motivate your students? Complete this textbox with your reflection

From the strategies you wrote, I am sure you would agree that motivating students will never be a singular
or simplistic process

7. Summary and conclusions

In a nutshell, Motivation is key to English Language Learning. I hope you found this unit as interesting as I
did. Reflecting upon the role of motivation in my classroom made me aware of aspects I hadn’t considered
for a while. Did you feel the same? Then, the videos that worked as content shed light on autonomy, mastery,
and purpose as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
 8. References

Bronson, P., & Merryman, A. (2009). Nurture shock. New York: Hachette Book Group. Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the
language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bankier & Wright (2005) • Applying Dörnyei’s Motivational Strategies TEACHING •LEARNING • GROW NI G JALT2011 CONFERENCE
PROCEEDINGS

Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The L2 motivational self-system. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self. (pp.
9-42). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Ellis, R. (1991). Second language acquisition and language pedagogy. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 48

Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning. London: Edward Arnold.

Gardner, R. C., & MacIntyre, P. D. (1991). An instrumental motivation in language study: Who says it isn’t effective? Studies in Second
Language Acquisition, 13, 57-72.

Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitude and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational
Psychology, 25(1), 54-67

Sturgeon, C. M. (n.d.). Aptitude, attitude, and motivation as predictors in foreign language learning. Lee University. Retrieved from
http://www-usr. rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/whytell.html

Ushioda, E. (2011). Language learning motivation, self, and identity: Current theoretical perspectives. Computer Assisted Language
Learning, 24(3), 199-210.

Willis, D., & Willis, J. (1996). Consciousness-raising activities.