Language Learning Motivation:An Analysis Of Motivation Theories And Their Applications In L2 Teaching And Learning

There are many factors that affect L2 learning such as intellectual capacity, language aptitude, attitudes, self-concept, personality traits, of which motivation is considered to be one of the most important that determines success or failure in L2 learning. All these factors can work when learners are motivated to learn. It is motivation that can determine the effort to learn a new language, the extent of active, personal involvement in learning the target language. Motivation can also have a great influence on how often individual learners use L2 learning strategies; how often individuals interact with native speakers; how much language input they receive in the course of learning; how well they do in L2 relevant tests; what risk they will run in using the new language and how long they will sustain their effort in language learning etc.Motivation is so important that many L2 researchers and teachers have been performing a considerable amount of research on the nature, source and role of motivation in L2 learning field. Gardner is one of the earliest typical representatives. He and his associates developed a socio-educational model of motivation from the perspective of social psychology. Within his model, Gardner defines motivation as three interrelated elements which are effort, desire, and positive affect. But he puts overemphasis on influence of integrativeness and integrative motivation on target language learning, and ignores the importance of instrumental motivation. In addition, Gardner's social psychological motivation model does not include details on cognitive aspects of motivation to learn.Quite a few of L2 researchers and teachers including Dornyei, Oxford and Shearin, Williams and Burden, have done much research on motivation from the different perspectives of psychology. They have established their own theoretical framework of motivation that has practical applications for L2 learning and teaching. Following their initiative, the author of the thesis is totry to help foster further understanding of motivation and its theories from the perspectives of general, industrial, educational, and cognitive psychology and provide some possible practical suggestions for L2 teachers and other people to motivate the students and other learners. These motivation theories include need theories, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, cognition-related motivation theories, motivation theories related to classroom, goal-setting theories and feedback.Need theories mainly refers to Maslow's hierarchy of needs and need for achievement. According toMaslow' theory, people have a hierarchy of needs ranging from basic need for survival and safety to higher-level needs for self-esteem and self-actualization. The lower-level basic needs should be met in order for individuals to be able to move on to the higher-level needs. Understanding the five needs described by Maslow is very important for L2 teachers in recognizing learners' state of motivation. Achievement motivation was developed by David McClelland,which is valuable for understanding motivation in learners. The basic premise is that people differ quite markedly in their need to achieve or to be successful. The differences between individuals' needs to succeed can be assessed, and learners' need for achievement can be increased by training, which have important applications for language learning.In general, motivation can be considered as either intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is defined as behavior or activity carried out by learners out of interest in and enjoyment of the activity itself rather than a reward. In contrast with intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation can be defined that learners perform activities in anticipation of extrinsic rewards such as money, prizes, grades and positive evaluation, or in order to avoid punishment. Comparing these two types of motivation, 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. Soin L2 learning it is essential to develop learners' interest in the target language.In recent years, more and more researchers have increasingly realized the importance of applying cognitive approaches to research into motivation in the field of L2 learning. In regard to cognition-related motivation, self-concept, attribution theory and learned helplessness are very important in L2 learning. Self-concept refers to the combination of all of one's perceptions and conceptions about oneself which give rise to one's sense of personal identity. It includes self-confidence, self-efficacy and self-esteem. Self-confidence is the belief that one has the ability to produce result, accomplish goals. Self-efficacy refers to an individual's judgment of his or ability to perform a specific action. Self-esteem is the evaluation of one's worthiness and the attitudes towards oneself. Positive self-concept promotes learners' language learning, while negative self-concept demotivates learners.Attribution theory is the study of how causal ascriptions of failure and success affect future goal expectancy. The most important application of attribution theory is to change learners' attributions so that instead of viewing failure as due to stable and uncontrollable, they begin to see it as controllable and unstable. In other words, they begin to see that they can have control over their learning processes and outcomes.Learned helplessness refers to a resigned, pessimistic, helpless state that develops when the learners want to succeed but feels that success is impossible or beyond them for some reasons. Once it is established, learned helplessness is very difficult to reverse.The next motivation theory is the theories related to classroom. It contains three sections: task-related motivation, teacher-related motivation, and group-related motivation. Task-related motivation discusses what kind of tasks and how the specific tasks can motivate learners to learn. Teacher-related motivation deals with what a language teacher should do and how he or she should presents tasks in order to motivate learners to learnbetter. Group-related to motivation explores what kind of classroom structure and what kind of relationship among learners and what norm of group will benefit learners' language learning. It deals with three types of classroom structure: the competitive, the co-operative and individualistic. As a result of comparison of the three structures, the co-operative, in general is better for language learners.Goal-setting is also an aspect of motivation. It refers to the notion that an individual learner is able to set the appropriate goals and has a plan and effective way to achieve them. Setting suitable goals and achieving them are considered as a vital part of well-motivated behavior and an important step towards learners' self-control and autonomy in learning. Without goal-setting, individual learners feel aimless and lack of a sense of direction.The last theory relevant to motivation in L2 learning discussed here is feedback theory. Feedback refers to any action or even lack of action by another significant person. Feedback can be seen a complex area involving a number of variables such as the intention of the person who gives the feedback, the way it is given, and the way it is explained by the learner who receives it.Chins has the largest number of learners of English as a foreign language in the world. It is necessary to know English language learning motivation in China. According to research, there are four basic types of motivation: integrative, instrumental, extrinsic and affective. Of the four types of motivation, the extrinsic and the instrumental are the major Chinese learners' English learning motivation.After having explored Gardner's socio-educational model, and discussing other important motivation theories from the different perspectives of psychology, and analyzing the situations of EFL in China, I think it is the time to combine these theories and provide some possible suggestions for L2 teachers to motivate learners.Here are some suggestions:? Knowing the students and identifying the reasons for learning the new language.? Developing the students' interest in the target language.? Exhibiting appropriate teachers' behavior and establishing good teacher-student relationship ?? Creating a pleasant and supportive learning atmosphere.? Forming cohesive and co-operative learning groups.? Encouraging learners to set up the goals and sub-goals? Increasing the students' "goal-orientedness".? Making the curriculum relevant for learners.? Developing the students' realistic expectations o? Developing students' self-confidence.? Promoting the students' self-efficacy?? Creating learners' autonomy.? Promoting motivation-enhancing attributions <>? Giving feedback that is informational <,? Increasing learners' satisfaction and the question of rewards and grades.