Chapter2 Literature Review
2.1 Definition of L2 Learning Motivation
First of all, regarding the definition of “motivation”, scholars of different genres and different periods endowed it with their own understandings, which are mainly divided into the following three categories: First, from an internal perspective, Song (1984) presented that motivation is an internal force that promotes people’s behavior; Mc Combs et al. (2002) proposed that motivation is an innate ability and tendency of individuals to actively learn and grow. Second, from an external perspective, motivation is the reason for acting to achieve a specific purpose (Sun 1993). Third, from the intermediary process perspective, motivation is regarded as an intermediary that connects internal needs and external incentives, but to some extent, the active role of individual’s self-control in the intermediary role of motivation was ignored. For example, Zhu (1989) put forward that motivation is the idea, desire and ideal that can cause and maintain individual’s behaviors and then lead the behaviors to a certain objective, so as to meet the individual’s certain need. In this study, the definition of motivation is more inclined to the first one. Motivation is an internal force that changes individuals’ behaviors, which is affected by individuals’ internal factors, referring to the concept of “self” that plays a huge role in motivation.
2.2 Classifications of L2 Learning Motivation
Since the 1990s, “L2 learning motivation” have been classified from different perspectives by foreign and domestic scholars.
Social psychologist, Gardner, classifies learning motivation into integrative motivation and instrumental motivation (Gardner & Lambert 1972). Integrative motivation means that learners are not only interested in the knowledge of English itself, but also in the English-speaking countries’ arts, customs and cultures (Kong 2012). As the name expresses, instrumental motivation is tools used to obtain the learner’s intended goals. Through L2 learning, learners with strong instrumental motivation, often meet their dreams, such as being able to go abroad, obtaining employment, or attending and ideal school. (Kong 2012).
From the perspective of language characteristics, Brown (1973) puts forward three kinds of motivation: overall motivation, situational motivation, and task motivation.
From the perspective of behaviorism, Wen (1996), who is the famous scholar in China, divided motivation into surface motivation and deep motivation. Surface motivation is dominated by learners’ future development and employment, while deep motivation is manifested in learners’ interest in the target language and target language culture (Wen 2003).
From the perspective of motivational source, Jia (2007) conducted research and defined intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.
Chapter 3 Research Methodology ..............................22
3.1 Research Questions .............................. 22
3.2 Research Participants ............................ 22
Chapter 4 Results and Discussions ............................ 31
4.1 Results
