MOTIVATION
Motivation is whatever makes the learner ready and willing to rearrange his own molecules, but what is that? Miller, a social psychologist, and Wardhaugh, a linguist, express current ideas on this topic in language that is strikingly harmonious and at times almost identical. Motivation of course encompasses the student's purposes (Wardhaugh, 1967, p. 23), and we should make materials as relevant as possible to the live concerns of the student, so as to increase the chances of individual involvement (Miller, 1964, p. 40f.). But it also encompasses the social and academic climate (Wardhaugh; cf. also the non-recent Wallace, 1949); we too often overlook or use unskillfully the forces within the learning group itself, and the quality of the interaction of its members (Miller). Fear of inadequacy (Wardhaugh) and failure (Miller), of change (Miller) and anomie (Wardhaugh) are negative forces which teachers can identify and try to remove (Miller).
We may picture these aspects of motivation in terms of two intersecting axes of reality as it exists for the learner.[1] The horizontal axis expresses the external aspect of his experiences: his relations with other people, his ability to talk about past experiences, to interact with present waiters, taxi drivers and friends, and to plan for the future. This outward-looking kind of reality may in the long run be necessary for motivation, but it is not by itself sufficient.
The vertical axis extends through reality that is internal to the learner: his feelings, his anxieties, and his picture of himself. Does he enjoy what he is doing, or not? Does he see
- ↑ This discussion of motivation in terms of two axes is taken from Stevick (1971).
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