Gardner’s Socio-Educational Model (with integrative motivation the key construct) was the dominant theory in early motivation research.
A social-psychological factor frequently used to account for differential success in learning a second language is motivation. This has an intuitive appeal. It makes sense that individuals who are motivated will learn another language faster and to a greater degree. And, quite clearly, some degree of motivation is involved in initial decisions to learn another language and to maintain learning (Gass & Selinker, 2008).