Page 8 - The Investigation of Integrative, Instrumental, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation of Language learners in the foreign settings

The Investigation of Integrative, Instrumental, Intrinsic… 423

(2000) also maintain that motivation is an essential stimulus for
effective performances. Richard and Schmidt (2002) assert that
motivation is the main factor of success or failure in the process of
learning an L2.

The social-psychological theory of motivation in L2 not only defines
the structure of students’ motivation, but also, explores the function of
students’ motivation level in their L2 learning procedure. This model
distinguishes two broad orientations of motivation: integrative
orientation and instrumental orientation. The former entails a desire to
identify with the target-language culture and its speakers whereas the
latter concerns with conditions when L2 students want to learn the
language for functional purposes such as job opportunity, university
application etc. Integrative motivation encourages L2 learners to easily
interact with the target language speakers and be part of the target
culture or community (Garner et al., 1976:199). Therefore, one could
conclude that integrative motivators (i.e. L2 learners) the learners desire
to function like the people who speak the target language. On the other
hand, the instrumental motivation directs L2 learners to acquire the
language for practical reasons including getting permission into a
university or obtaining a job in a big company.