Related research shows differential results about the construct of motivation . The findings concerning certain focus groups demonstrate the superiority of students with extrinsic/instrumental motivation to learners with intrinsic motivation. By contrast, in other studies on motivation, the learners with intrinsic motivation outperformed those with extrinsic motivation. I guess we should focus on the construct of grit- persistent perseverance for achieving one's goals. If there is no promptitude for action, motivation or grit cannot lead to miracles. As such, teachers' roles in alleviating learners' demotivational tendencies by developing in them a positive L2 self system can be very effective.

Best regards,

R. Biria

There are many factors that affect motivation, so it is hard to generalize.

Are they adult learners or young people. Adult learners often have a specific purpose in mind for their English skills, so they tend to be more self-motivated.

But instructional design can also plan a major role in motivation. Do the students see the value in the specific learning tasks? Do the teachers use boring lecture or interesting classroom activities?

Related research shows differential results about the construct of motivation . The findings concerning certain focus groups demonstrate the superiority of students with extrinsic/instrumental motivation to learners with intrinsic motivation. By contrast, in other studies on motivation, the learners with intrinsic motivation outperformed those with extrinsic motivation. I guess we should focus on the construct of grit- persistent perseverance for achieving one's goals. If there is no promptitude for action, motivation or grit cannot lead to miracles. As such, teachers' roles in alleviating learners' demotivational tendencies by developing in them a positive L2 self system can be very effective.

Best regards,

R. Biria

Rina,

Self-determination Theory (STD) (www.selfdeterminationtheory.org) provides a great angle to look at motivational issues / orientations in different domains including educational settings. You may want to check the website which also provides the full-text of many related publications. STD asserts that there is a continuum of motivation beginning from amotivation to intrinsic motivation. It's worth checking out.

I'm teaching young adults at a university setting in Turkey. Most attend that one-year of intensive English program because they have to prove their proficiency in English to start their departmental studies in their faculty. With that goal in their mind, we assume that they have intrinsic motivation (with a personalized goal); however, they are not so. At least some of them. It's their choice to study at a program where the medium of instruction is English, however, it is not enough to make them motivated for English. There are many other factors including the ones you mentioned like boring lectures, length of classes etc. I have done a couple of studies on it (links given below). Maybe you may want to have a look at them.

Poster Voices from Language Learners and Their Teachers: What reall...

Poster The Academic Motivation Scale in Turkish: �A measure of moti...

It mainly depends on learner needs and the context in which learning occurs.

To find an answer to your question, you might want to look for meta-analysis studies on L2 motivation. These studies should include "intrinsic motivation" and "extrinsic motivation" variables into their analyses. Please note that in L2 research it is customary to view L2 motivation in terms of "instrumental" and "integrative" orientations, so it could be good to consider these variables too and look for relevant meta-analysis studies.

Good luck!

I think extrinsic motivation is for EFL and intrinsic motivation for ESL.

It depends highly on the need to learn the language.

In my years of dealing with ESL or EFL, most students have both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to learn English . As Michael Marek notes, the older learner tends to be more motivated since he/she has a specific life goal in mind--getting a high TOEFL score to gain admission to a university or a job that demands more fluency especially in writing. Younger learners are not often as self-motivated, although I have found most of my students highly motivated (I am speaking of those out of high school), willing to work hard, and to apply the principles of American rhetoric to their written assignments especially in the graduate level exams for American universities.

An important factor (in my personal experience) is the teacher's own skill not only in English but in the culture and general rhetorical structures of the languages of the students. For too many TESL program I have seen, the cultural knowledge and some language understanding (not the conversational necessarily but m ore about understanding the structure of the first language of the student.) I have watched teachers simply tell students "That is wrong when they find an error." But for that learner, it is never enough to say that English does it "like this." One of the best examples is the Arabic "wa," (English 'and") used so often that I have had students write me an entire string of sentences one page long held together by "wa" as they wrote out an argument. Well, American English considers "and/wa" as the weakest form of coordination, not to be used except minimally in argument to show perfect balance. English favors subordination in argument (one dependent clause and one independent clause) to automatically signal the lesser and more important elements of the argument. Arabic, however, favors what American call a "flat" style that piles up examples as a major means to argue a point. Americans do not favor the pile-up of details or facts ( called "laundry list" writing) however right they may be, so we look at that writing with "and" as a weak writing and grade it very low, probably 2.5 on a scale of 6. That score is usually reserved for obvious foreign student writing that does not adhere to the rules of argument. But if a teacher never explains to the student these points about grammar (coordination vs. subordination), how will the student understand why this particular writing is "wrong" or "weak." (and make no mistake--most foreign students know much more about grammar, usage, and mechanics than American students do).

Being able to make references to the cultural and historical background of that student(s) not only makes the class more interesting but it also lets students know that the teacher has taken the time to learn about their background. To know a little bit of that first language opens the door to a fun class because students love to "teach" their language to the teacher. And those discoveries can lead to fun lesson plans especially in the early weeks or months as student acclimate to a different (and even hostile) environment on public university campuses. On the campus where I have taught for 22 years, I can testify that foreign students are the favorites of just about every professor no matter the discipline. These students are interested, motivated, willing to ask questions and revise (I had one student who wanted to revise a 92/100 paper to go even higher). They are a joy to teach and to learn from as well.