Language Education Studies Volume (1), Issue (1), 14-20 (2015) Quarterly Publisher ( http://www.languageeducationstudies.ir) ISSN: 2476-4744 L ES From Motivation to Learn to Motivation to Speak 1 Morteza Montazeri, 2 Hadi Hamidi* 3 Neda Fekri, 1&2 Department of English Language, Khazar Institute of Higher Education, Mahmoudabad, Iran 3 Department of English Language, Aliabad Katoul Branch, Islamic Azad University, Aliabad Katoul, Iran Corresponding email address hamidi_tefl@yahoo.com Article reference: Montazeri, M., Hamidi, H., & Fekri, N. (2015). From motivation to learn to motivation to speak. Language Education Studies, 1 (1), 14-20. Abstract: Motivation is the inner driving force that conduces to action taken in a specific situation. The degree or intensity of this force has a direct impact on a successful fulfillment of the action. While orientation refers to a class of reasons for learning a language, motivation refers to a combination of the learner’s attitudes, desires, and willingness to expend effort in order to learn the second language. This paper first discusses the motivation of the language learners to learn the language as a whole (combination of skills) and then discusses that there is a narrowed down type of motivation which shows the willingness to the language learners to orally express themselves. The authors concluded that this type of narrowed down motivation should be named motivation to speak rather than willingness to communicate. The authors believe that there is a necessity to develop an instrument which technically measures the motivation to speak on the part of the language learners. Key words: language acquisition, motivation to learn, motivation to speak, orientation Motivation is the inner driving force that conduces to action taken in a specific situation. The degree or intensity of this force has a direct impact on a successful fulfillment of the action. Liu (2010) defines motivation as “an internal state that initiates and maintains goal-directed behavior” (p.38). In the field of language teaching motivation refers to a combina- tion of the learner’s attitudes, desires, and willingness to expend effort to learn the second language. In this field, however, there has been made a distinction between orientation and motivation. According to Mayer (as cited in Liu, 2012), when learners are motivated to learn, they make greater effort to understand the materials and, hence, learn more deeply, condu- cive to better ability to transfer what they have acquired to new situation. Motivation and Orientation Orientation, according to Richards and Schmidt (1985), refers to a class of reasons for learning a language whereas motivation refers to “a combination of the learner’s attitudes, desires, and willingness to expend effort in order to learn the second language” (p. 343). Orientations encompass an integrative motivation, defined as the tendency to become like the members of the target language society, and instrumental orientation, defined as foreign language learning aimed at a more practical result such as passing an examination or obtaining a job. The construct of integrative motivation, hence, includes the integrative orientation, positive attitudes towards both the target language community and a commitment to learning the language (Richards & Schmidt, 1985). Extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation. Richards and Schmidt (1985) make another distinction between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrin- sic motivation is learning the language for the joy beyond learning it and extrinsic motivation refers to language learning which is caused by such external factors as parental pressure, academic requirements, or other sources of punishments and