Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

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8.1 Motivation for L2 learning
integrative motivation: learning the language in order to take part in the cul-
ture of its people
instrumental motivation: learning the language for a career goal or other prac-
tical reason
Keywords
●
Why did you learn a second language? Have you succeeded?
●
Evaluate these statements:
Studying a foreign language is important to my students because they will be able
to participate more freely in the activities of other cultural groups.
strongly slightly neither 
agree
slightly strongly 
agree
agree
nor disagree
disagree
disagree
❑
❑
❑
❑
❑
Studying a foreign language can be important for my students because it will some
day be useful in getting a good job.
strongly slightly neither 
agree
slightly strongly 
agree
agree
nor disagree
disagree
disagree
❑
❑
❑
❑
❑
Focusing questions
One reason for some L2 learners doing better than others is undoubtedly because
they are better motivated. The child learning a first language does not have good
or bad motivation in any meaningful sense. Language is one means through
which all children fulfil their everyday needs, however diverse these may be. One
might as well ask what the motivation is for walking or for being a human being.
In these terms, the second language is superfluous for many classroom learners,
who can already communicate with people and use language for thinking. Their
mental and social life has been formed through their first language.
The usual meaning of motivation for the teacher is probably the interest that
something generates in the students. A particular exercise, a particular topic, a par-
ticular song, may interest the students in the class, to the teacher’s delight.
Obvious enjoyment by the students is not necessarily a sign that learning is taking
place – people probably enjoy eating ice cream more than carrots, but which has
the better long-term effects? ‘What interests the students is not necessarily in the
students’ interests’ (Peters, 1973). Motivation in this sense is a short-term affair,
from moment to moment in the class. Vital as it is to the classroom, SLA research
has as yet paid little attention to it, as Crookes and Schmidt (1991) point out.
So why do people learn languages? A survey of schools in six countries of the
European Union (Bonnet, 2002) found that 94 per cent of children thought that

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learning English was an advantage for ‘communication abroad’, 86 per cent for
‘facilitation of computer work’ and ‘comprehension of music texts’, down to 64 per
cent ‘sounds better in English’, and 51 per cent ‘no expression in national lan-
guage’. The inclusion of musical lyrics is interesting, showing the continuing influ-
ence of pop music sung in English.
Another survey shows the nine most popular reasons across the EU for learning
a new language (EuroBarometer, 2006), shown in Figure 8.1; a UK report came up
with 700 reasons for studying modern languages (Gallagher-Brett, n.d.). Clearly
the reasons why people learn new languages are far wider than for their personal
careers.
Motivation for L2 learning 137
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
To be able to study in another country
To know a language that is widely
spoken around the world
To meet people from other countries
To be able to understand people from
other cultures
To get a better job in your own country
To be able to work in another country
For personal satisfaction
To use for work including travelling
To use on holidays abroad
Figure 8.1 Reasons for learning a new language held by Europeans 2005 (Eurobarometer 243)
Motivation in L2 learning, however, has mostly been used to refer to long-term
stable attitudes in the students’ minds, in particular integrative and instrumental
motivation, introduced by Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert in a series of
books and papers (Gardner and Lambert, 1972; Gardner, 1985, 2007). A discussion
of the socio-educational model within which these two factors are crucial is pro-
vided in Chapter 12. The integrative motivation reflects whether the student ident-
ifies with the target culture and people in some sense, or rejects them. The
statement in the Focusing questions at the beginning of this section, ‘Studying a
foreign language is important to my students because they will be able to partici-
pate more freely in the activities of other cultural groups’, was taken from one used
by Gardner for testing integrativeness in the AMTB (Attitudes and Motivation Test
Battery), which can be found in full online; a short version is also on the website.
The more that a student admires the target culture – reads its literature, visits it on

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holiday, looks for opportunities to practise the language, and so on – the more suc-
cessful they will be in the L2 classroom.
Instrumental motivation means learning the language for an ulterior motive
unrelated to its use by native speakers – to pass an examination, to get a certain
kind of job, and so on; the statement in the Focusing questions, ‘Studying a for-
eign language can be important for my students because it will some day be use-
ful in getting a good job’ also comes from Gardner’s test battery. I learnt Latin at
school because a classical language was at the time an entry requirement for uni-
versity, and for no other reason.
Some people want to learn a second language with an integrative motivation
such as ‘I would like to live in the country where it is spoken’, or with an instru-
mental one such as ‘For my future career’, or indeed with both, or with other
motivations entirely. The relative importance of these varies from one part of the
world to another. In Montreal, learners of French tend to be integratively moti-
vated, in the Philippines learners of English tend to be instrumentally motivated
(Gardner, 1985).
I have been using the Gardner questionnaire with L2 learners in different coun-
tries, as seen on the website. English schoolchildren learning French, for example,
score 77 per cent for integrative motivation and 70 per cent for instrumental; adult
English students score 87 per cent for integrative motivation and 66 per cent for
instrumental. Whether the country is Belgium, Poland, Singapore or Taiwan, the
integrative motive comes out as more important than the instrumental.
Surprisingly, the highest scores for integrative motivation are Taiwan with 88 per
cent; the lowest Belgium with 74 per cent. In other words, people want to learn a
language for getting on with people more than they do for job opportunities.
Coleman (1996) too found that students did better with integrative motivation than
with instrumental.
The distinction between integrative and instrumental motivation has been used
as a point of reference by many researchers. Zoltan Dornyei (1990) argues that it is
biased towards the Canadian situation where there is a particular balance between
the two official languages, English and French. He therefore tested the motivation
of learners of English in the European situation of Hungary. He found that an
instrumental motivation concerned with future careers was indeed very powerful.
Though an integrative motivation was also relevant, it was not, as in Canada,
related to actual contact with native groups, but to general attitudes and stereo-
types; it became more important as the learners advanced in the language, as was
the case in England. In addition, he identified two factors relating to classroom
learning. One was the need for achievement – trying to improve yourself in gen-
eral, more specifically to pass an examination; the other, attributions about past
failures – whatever else the learners blame their failures on.