Self-Determination Theory: Why We Choose to Learn

20 min

Four students, one Kiswahili class

Four S6 students sit in the same Kiswahili lesson. Asked why they are learning the language, they answer:

Mugisha: “My parents will take my phone if I fail.”
Umutoni: “I would feel ashamed in front of my family if I did badly.”
Byiringiro: “I want to trade across the East African Community, and Kiswahili will help me do it.”
Mutesi: “I just love the songs and the stories. It’s fun.”

All four are motivated, yet self-determination theory predicts that they will not learn in the same way, or keep learning for the same length of time. What matters is not only how much motivation a person has but what kind.

Definition

Self-determination theory (SDT): a theory of motivation by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (from 1985) which holds that people are most motivated, and most healthy, when their behaviour feels freely chosen and when three basic psychological needs are met.

Intrinsic motivation: doing an activity for the satisfaction in the activity itself.

Extrinsic motivation: doing an activity for an outcome separate from the activity, such as a reward, approval or a future goal.

Amotivation: a lack of any intention to act, often because the person sees no point or feels unable to succeed.

Internalisation: the process by which an outside reason gradually becomes one’s own.

1. Three basic needs

Need	Meaning	In a language class, it is met when…
Autonomy	Feeling that your actions come from your own choice	students choose a topic for their presentation
Competence	Feeling able to succeed and to improve	tasks are challenging but achievable, and feedback is specific
Relatedness	Feeling connected to and cared for by others	classmates support each other’s attempts instead of laughing at mistakes

2. A continuum, not a switch

SDT divides extrinsic motivation into four types, according to how far the reason has been internalised. Together with amotivation and intrinsic motivation, they form a continuum.

Figure 1. The self-determination continuum.

Type	Student in the opening case	Predicted pattern
External regulation	Mugisha (fear of losing his phone)	Works while the threat lasts; stops when it is removed
Introjected regulation	Umutoni (shame, pride)	Works hard but with anxiety and pressure
Identified regulation	Byiringiro (a goal he values)	Persists, even through dull exercises
Intrinsic motivation	Mutesi (enjoyment)	Persists and explores beyond the syllabus

Integrated regulation, the most internalised extrinsic type, is when an activity fits fully with your values and sense of who you are, as for someone who sees being multilingual as part of being a good East African citizen.

3. The evidence

Second-language learners. Kimberly Noels and colleagues (2000) surveyed English-speaking university students learning French in Canada. Students with intrinsic or identified reasons felt more competent, were less anxious, and more often intended to continue studying French; students who felt amotivated were the most likely to drop it.
Framing a lesson. Maarten Vansteenkiste and colleagues (2004) gave Belgian students the same text to study, framed either as useful for their own growth or for a financial reward, and in either autonomy-supportive (“you can choose…”) or controlling (“you must…”) language. Students given the growth framing in autonomy-supportive language learned more deeply and persisted longer.
Across cultures. Valery Chirkov and colleagues (2003) found that feeling autonomous predicted well-being in South Korea, Russia, Turkey and the United States, which suggests autonomy is not only a Western value.

Sprouts: “Self-Determination Theory Explained”, a short animation. Watch for the three basic needs and how the narrator distinguishes controlled from autonomous motivation.

Important

Evaluate SDT. It is supported by many studies in schools, workplaces, sport and health, and it gives teachers practical advice: offer choice, give useful feedback and build a supportive class. However, most of the language-learning evidence is correlational and relies on questionnaires, so it cannot show that a type of motivation causes persistence. Critics also argue that in communities where people act out of duty to family, a family-chosen goal can be fully internalised, so “autonomy” must not be confused with independence from others; SDT’s authors agree with this distinction, but it makes the theory harder to measure.

Warning

Don’t confuse autonomy with doing everything alone. In SDT, autonomy means acting from willing endorsement. A student who studies Kiswahili because her community values it, and who agrees with that value, is autonomous.

Tip

Memory hook: the three needs are “ACR”: Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness. The continuum runs “No, Ex, In-tro, Iden, In-teg, In-trin”.

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Practice

Name the three basic psychological needs in SDT and explain each.
Distinguish intrinsic from extrinsic motivation, with an example of each about learning English.
Place each statement on the continuum: (a) “I revise because I’d feel guilty if I didn’t.” (b) “I see no point in learning French.” (c) “I revise because I value being able to read news in English.”
Explain why Mugisha’s motivation may disappear after the examination.
Suggest two changes a teacher could make to support autonomy and competence in a speaking lesson.
Describe Noels and colleagues’ 2000 findings and state one limitation of the study.
Evaluate SDT as an explanation of why students continue learning a language.

Show answersHide answers

Autonomy: feeling that you choose your actions. Competence: feeling able to succeed and improve. Relatedness: feeling connected to and cared for by others.
Intrinsic: reading English novels because you enjoy them. Extrinsic: studying English to pass the national examination or get a scholarship.
(a) introjected regulation; (b) amotivation; (c) identified regulation.
His motivation is external regulation, dependent on a threat. Once the exam is over and the threat removed, there is no reason left to continue.
Autonomy: let students choose their topic or partner; explain why the task is useful. Competence: break the task into achievable steps and give specific feedback on what improved.
Students with intrinsic or identified reasons for learning French felt more competent, were less anxious and more often intended to continue; amotivated students were most likely to drop it. Limitation: it was a correlational questionnaire study, so it cannot show cause, and self-reports may be biased.
Strengths: it explains differences in persistence between equally motivated learners; supported across countries and settings; gives practical classroom guidance. Weaknesses: much language-learning evidence is correlational and self-reported; the types of regulation are hard to measure separately; cultural meanings of autonomy complicate measurement. Overall a well-supported but not complete explanation; ability, opportunity and teaching quality also matter.

Sources and credits

Works described: Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (1985), Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, Plenum; Noels, K. A., Pelletier, L. G., Clément, R. and Vallerand, R. J. (2000), “Why are you learning a second language? Motivational orientations and self-determination theory”, Language Learning 50; Vansteenkiste, M. and others (2004), “Motivating learning, performance, and persistence”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 87; Chirkov, V. and others (2003), “Differentiating autonomy from individualism and independence”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84.
Video: “Self-Determination Theory Explained”, Sprouts, embedded from YouTube.

Written by Ganzaa: the text, the tables, Figure 1 and the exercises.

1Four students, one Kiswahili class

21. Three basic needs

32. A continuum, not a switch

43. The evidence

Four students, one Kiswahili class

1. Three basic needs

2. A continuum, not a switch

3. The evidence