In the last couple of weeks prior to restarting classes, I've been watching a lot of television. The weather's not been particularly nice and I'm too poor to do anything else. That's the downside to being a student at my age, I guess. The upside is: imagine the best conference you've ever been to and think of one of the great presentations - one that has really had an impact on your teaching... now imagine that instead of a 45 minute session you get to have access to months of amazing lectures, group discussions and articles to read to follow up and challenge yourself with. So, poverty is worth it, I guess.
But anyway, back to TV, one of the theme songs, from
Weeds, has become a real earworm. It goes, for those of you who don't know it,
"Little Boxes, little boxes, on the hillside, little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same..."
The song makes me think about motivation, a lot. Or maybe I was thinking about it before the song and it just drummed it in. We all know that learning doesn't happen without motivation. But what is it really? Where does it come from?
Usually, it gets boiled down into three categories:
Extrinsic Motivation (external influences)
e.g. money, rewards, good grades, trophies, certificates, job position
Intrinsic Motivation (internal influences)
e.g. enjoyment of a task, passion, a drive to seek challenges, autonomy, inherent satisfaction
Intrinsic motivation refers to doing something simply because it is enjoyable
while extrinsic motivation is more about getting a specific value or outcome
based on what you have done (Ryan and Deci, 2000).
Amotivation is basically when you can't be bothered.
It has also been determined, through extensive empirical research by Deci & Ryan, Vallerand and others over the decades, that extrinsic rewards put a damper on intrinsic motivation. I think though, that we have to be a bit cautious with this sort of thinking as it could very easily lead one into an assumption that extrinsic motivation is
bad and that intrinsic motivation is
best. A dangerous position I feel, because for the most part, whether we like it or not, our adult language learners are more likely to come to us extrinsically motivated than intrinsically.
They want to learn English to integrate into society, to get a job promotion, to ensure job security, to get a better pay cheque, to speak to their foreign colleagues and close the deal. If not this then they want to know that when they go on holiday, they won't get lost. Sure, there are a handful of housewives who just fancy learning it, but usually because someone else told them it is the
"thing" to do. And the teens mostly just want to pass the course, get the certificate, and get on with life.
So where it all gets a bit sticky for me, is that sometimes our
extrinsically motivated learners really enjoy learning. Why not, after
all? Sometimes we teachers can inspire them and sometimes their
colleagues do and sometimes they develop an interest for the language -
but all this interest and high from learning a second language does not
take away their primary extrinsic goals.
In more recent research, Ryan and Deci have made a point of re-examining extrinsic motivation more closely, placing extrinsic motivation on a continuum and have created this taxonomy:
The idea is that learners can be in a state of
external regulation (wanting rewards or avoiding criticism), or one of
introjected regulation (constraints are internalized and set by the learner).
Identified regulation means that the behavior is thought of as being self-determined and finally the last type is
integrated regulation - the person learns willingly because it fits in with the rest of the life activities and life goals (Vallerand, 1992).
Despite the fact that there is so much literature on extrinsic and
intrinsic motivations and I'll continue reviewing it all, I really can't
help but wonder if motivation is not actually something quite fluid. Can't you (or our learners) be one type and the next day, another?
But more importantly, if by categorizing motivation into boxes and then onto further hazy sub-boxes, might we be missing out on the fact that humans are infinitely complex creatures who can be both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated
at exactly the same time?
What d'ya think?
Best,
Karenne
image credits:
plant fondo oscuro by eric caballero
References:
Ryan, R. & Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions.
Contemporary Educational Psychology. 25, 54-67.
Vallerand, R. & Bissonnette, R. (1992). Intrinsic, Extrinsic and Amotivational Styles as Predictors of Behavior: A Prospective Study.
Journal of Personality. 60:3. 599-620.
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