cause motivation is considered by many to be one of the main determining factors in success in developing a second o r foreign language (34), both referred to as L2. Motivation determines the extent of active, personal involvement in L2 learning. Conversely, unmotivated students are insufficiently involved and therefore unable to develop their potential L2 skills.
IMPORTANCE AND BREADTH OF L2 LEARNING MOTIVATIONResearch shows that motivation directly influences how often students use L2 learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how much input they receive in the language being learned (the target language), how well they do on curriculum-related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how long they persevere and maintain L2 skills after language study is over (30; 32; 91). Therefore, motivation is extremely important for L2 learning, and it is crucial to understand what our students' motivations are.The Modern Language Journal, 78, i (1994) 01994 The Modern Language Journal 0026-7902/94/12-28 $1.50/0The currently prevalent theory (32-36; 38-42) of L2 learning motivation emphasizes integrative and instrumental aspects and has added a great deal to our understanding of how and why students learn L2s. The theory has received many positive reviews (e.g., 23) and now provides a solid base for constructing a broader theory. Other psychological perspectives may yield fresh insights for rethinking L2 learning motivation.Evidence suggests that the current theory might not cover all possible kinds of L2 learning motivation. Let us consider an example. In the fall of 1991, 218 American high school students were asked to write an essay explaining their motivation for studying Japanese. Many wanted to learn Japanese for future business reasons (an instrumental motivational orientation), and others were spurred by the desire to make friends in Japan (an integrative motivational orientation). However, more than two-thirds of the teenagers also had additional reasons for learning Japanese that did not relate well to either of these two motivations. These reasons included: receiving intellectual stimulation, seeking personal challenge, enjoying the elitism of taking a difficult language, showing off to friends, developing greater cultural tolerance through language study, aiding world peace, satisfying curiosity about cultural "secrets," pursuing a fascination with Japanese writing systems, and having a private code that parents would not know. These reasons for studying Japanese are only a sampling of those stated by students for studying Japanese. Most students spontaneously listed and explained at least three or four reasons-reasons that when an-Rebecca Oxford and Jill Shearin 13 alyzed resulted in approximately twenty distinguishable motivation categories (see 83). For the last twenty years, much research on L2 learning motivation has focused on integrative and instrumental motivation. Recently questions have been raised about other possible kinds of L2 learning...
