Chapter 2 Literature Review

2。1 Motivation 

Among the various learner factors in second language learning, motivation is the most attractive to researchers and practitioners, presumably due to its potential of change through human effort。 

Motivation can be pided into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation。 Intrinsic motivation mainly comes from the inherent pleasure and interests, and produces a kind of potential power。 It exists when someone works because of the spontaneous desire to accomplish a task successfully (Spaulding, 1992)。 Vallerand (1997) have posited the existence of three sub-types of intrinsic motivation: 1) To learn--taking part in an activity for enjoyment and satisfaction of understanding something fresh, meeting one’s curiosity and exploring the unknown field。 2) To achieve--involving in an activity for satisfaction of surpassing oneself, managing challenges and accomplishing or creating something original。 3) To experience stimulation--engaging in an activity to experience pleasant sensations。

In contrast, extrinsic motivation exists when inpiduals are motivated by an outcome which is external or functionally unrelated to the activity in which they are engaged (Spaulding, 1992)。 When students study more actively to gain teachers’ praise, win parents’ favor, or earn rewards such as money, we can rightly conclude that their motivation is primarily extrinsic。 In a word, it is the outward praise and rewards that encourage students to work hard。文献综述

Motivation is an internal process that guides, activities and maintains behavior over time。 In plain language, motivation is what gets you going, keeps you going, and determines where you’re trying to go (Baron, 1992; Schunk, 1990)。 The role and importance of motivation has no difference in education as well。 In this respect, motivation is regarded as one of the basic, most needed and important factors for academic learning and achievement across childhood through adolescence (Elliott & Dweck, 2005)。 Zhang (2010) believes that positive motivation is the prerequisite for effective second language teaching。 Students who are motivated to learn something use higher cognitive process in learning about it and absorb and retain more from it (Harp & Mayer, 1997)。 It’s necessary to describe one of the main theories of second language learning motivation, which is Gardner’s motivation theory。

Robert Gardner is the pioneers of the research on second language learning motivation。 A key issue in Garder’s motivation theory is the relationship between motivation and orientation。 Gardner (1982) uses the word “orientation” for what was above called the “desired goal”。 He distinguished between two kinds of orientation: integrative and instrumental orientation。 People who have the desire to learn a language in order to communicate with others have integrative orientation。 Whereas instrumental orientation means that someone has a practical aim,such as that which is concerned with getting a better job。 The role of orientation is to help to inspire motivation and direct it。