INTRINSIC MOTIVATION IN THE CLASSROOM DEFINING MOTIVATION

Motivation is the extent to which you make choices about goals to pursue and the effort you will devote to that pursuit.
1. A Behavioristic Definition
According to a psychologist, Skinner and Waston motivation stress on the role of rewards and punishments. Learners will be motivated if there is a reward (a simple reward like M&Ms, hugs or laughter) when they answer a question. Learners, like the poverbial horse running after the carrot, pursue goals in order to receive externally administered rewards: praise, gold stars, grades, certificates, diplomas, scholarships, carrers financial independence, and ultimately, happiness.
2. Cognitive Definitions
While rewards are very much a part of the whole picture, the difference lies in the source of motivation and the power of self-reward.
a. Drive theory. Those who see human drives as fundamental to human behavior claim that motivation stems from basic innate drives. (David Ausubel)
• Exploration
• Manipulation
• Activity
• Stimulation
• Knowledge
• Ego enchancement
This act as innate predisposition, compelling us, as it were, to probe the unknown, to control our environment, to be physically active, to be receptive to mental, emotional, or physical stimulation, to yearn fo answers to questions, and to build our own selfesteem.
b. Hierarchy of needs theory. Abraham Maslow. Pyramid of needs.
Self –actualization
Esteem
Communal
Safety
Physical needs

The importance key here is that a person is no adequately energized to pursue some of the higher needs untill the lower foundations of the pyramid have been stastified.
c. Self control theory. Hunt. Physchologists focus on the importance of people deciding for themselves waht to think or feel or do. We define ourselves by making our own decisions, rather than by simply reacting to others. Motivation is highest when one can make one’s own choices, whether they are in short-term contexts.

INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION
Instrinsically motivated activities are ones of which there is no apparent reward exept the activities itself. Instrintically motivated behaviors are aimed at bringing about certain internally rewarding consequences, namely, feeling of compentence and self-determation.
Extrinsically motivated behaviors are carried out in anticipation of a reward from outside beyond the self. Typical extrinsic rewards are money, prizes, grades, and even certain types of positive feedback.

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION IN EDUCATION

Traditionally, elementary and secondary school are fraught with extrinsically motivated behavior. The school curriculum is dictated by institutions (sometimes political influenced) and can be far removed from even the teacher’s choice. Parents’ and society values and wishes are virtually forced onto pupils, whether they like it or not). Tests and exams, many of which are standardized and given high credence in the world “out there”, are imposed on students with no consultation with the students themselves.
The consequence of such intrinsic motivators is that schools all too often teach students to play the “game” of pleasing teacher and authorities rather than developing an internalized thirst for knowledge and experience. Over the long haul, such dependency focuses students too exclusively on the material or monetary rewards of an education rather than instilling an appreciation for creativity and for satisfying some of the more basic drives for knowledge and exploration. Ultimately, the product of this system is a student who has been taught to fear failure above all and therefore to refrain from potentially rewarding risk-taking or innovating behavior.
The curriculum that comes from “the administrator” can be modified to some extent to include student-centered learning and teaching, to allow students to see some –not all, perhaps- of their own learning goals, and to individualized lesson and activities as much as possible. The result: higher student self-esteem, great chances for self-actualization, more deciding for oneself.
Expectations of parents and other authority figures are a reality that we cannot simply dissolve by waving a magic wand. The result: an appreciation, love, intimacy, and respect for the wisdom age. In turn, society’s expectations may through a process of education and counseling, be seen as a means for providing comfortable routines (time schedule, customs, more). Class discussion can focus on critical evaluation of society so that students aren’t forced to accept some specific way of thinking or acting, but are coaxed into examining both sides of the issue. The result is a sense of a belonging, a sense of the value of the wider community, of harmony.
The otherwise extrinsic values can also be redirect through:
• Emphasizing the “big” picture – larger perspectives
• Letting students set long-term goals
• Allowing sufficient time for learning
• Cooperative learning activities
• Group work
• Viewing the class as team
• Content centered teaching
• English for specific (vocational/professional) purposes
• English in workplace
• Allowing risk-taking behavior
• Rewarding innovation and creativity.


INTRINSIC MOTIVATION IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Zoltan Dornyei and Kata Csizer (1998:215) offered a set of “ten commandments” for motivating learners, based on a survey of Hungarian foreign language teacher. All ten items focus on what the teacher can do to stimulate intrinsic motivation.
1. Set a personal example with your own behavior
2. Create a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere in the classroom
3. Present the tasks properly
4. Develop a good relationship with the learners
5. Increase the learners’ linguistic self-confidence
6. Make the language classes interesting
7. Promote learner autonomy
8. Personalize the learning process
9. Increase the learners’ goal-orientedness
10. Familiarize learners with the target language culture.

Other factor affect learning outcomes: native ability, age context of learning, style preferences, background experience and qualification availability of time to give the effort needed, and the quality of input tat is beyond the immediate control of the learner. But when all these factors are duly considered, the students’ long-term goal their deepest level of feeling and thinking, and their global assessment of the potential to be self-actualized is much, much better served by promoting intrinsic motives.