As for Ellis, he defined the motivation as the efforts that language learners put into learning in result of their interests and desire。 As far as he is concerned, the learner’s efforts are significant element in learning motivation。 While Brown thinks that motivation is the learners’ goal, to which they will devote effort。 Brown merges the goal and the efforts together。 Williams and Burden defined motivation from the psychological perspective。 Both of them agree that motivation is a state of cognition and emotional arousal, which make somebody to take actions and cause a continuing physically and mentally efforts, in order to achieve his aims。 Recently, Dornyei defined the motivation from two aspects that are dynamic and static states。 He points out that motivation is the particular action of one taking, the persistence of one sustaining, and the efforts one spending, for which the most researchers would agree with。 That is to say, motivation refers to why people make up their mind to do things, how long they can persist in this activity, how hard they pursue the goal。来-自~优+尔=论.文,网www.chuibin.com +QQ752018766-

All in all, we can draw a conclusion that motivation is the desire to learn a language, the goal one sets to achieve, the effort one makes, and the persistence one sustains。

1。3 Classifications

Jack C。 Richards, a world-recognized professor in English-language acquisition, once said that learning may be affected differently by different types of motivation。 A great number of researches have been done to explore the classification of motivation in foreign language learning。 The most influential types of motivation are instrumental motivation, integrative motivation, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation。

1。3。1 Integrative and Instrumental Motivation

Gardner and Lambert give a clear distinction between integrative motivation and instrumental motivation in foreign language learning。 Integrative motivation indicates that the learner is found of the target language, and wants recognize himself as the member of the community or a part of the target language society。 The integrative motivation shows the learner’s positive attitude towards the target language or culture and who wishes to become a member of the target language community。 While, instrumental motivation refers to that the learner sees a language as an tool to attain instrumental aims, such as acquiring economic and practical benefits, meeting the requirements of schools or teachers, passing some exams, applying for a better job, achieving higher salary or social status, and reading technical materials。 Instrumental motivation puts its emphasis on the pragmatic aspects of learning a foreign language and neglects the communication with foreign language community。 In other words, the instrumental motivation gives importance to the practicability of learning language and what benefits the learner can obtain from studying a new language。 Gardner and Lambert hold that integrative motivation seems more important than instrumental motivation, because it is rooted in the personal interests of the leaner and exerts its influence on long-term learning efforts, which are essential to gain language learning success。 But we should notice that the instrumental motivation is also important in language learning and may become the decisive factor in language learning success。