Motivation and second language acquisition

This paper posits four stages of language acquisition, identified as elemental, consolidation, conscious expression, and automaticity and thought, and considers the role of motivation in this process.It distinguishes between two types of motivation, language learning motivation and classroom motivation, indicating how these relate to two distinct contexts, the cultural and the educational through their influence on integrativeness and attitudes toward the learning situation.It discusses how the two types of motivation are differentially involved in the four stages, and empirical support for this perspective is presented in the form of path analyses of two samples of students from Catalonia.