The field of motivation encompasses many different sub-disciplines in the psychology of human behaviour. What moves a person to make certain choices, to engage in action, to persist in action – such questions lie at the heart of motivation theory and research. Yet while these questions may seem deceptively simple, their exploration continues to generate an astonishing wealth of research and debate that attest to the complexity of motivation in explaining human behaviour. This essay will first summarize current perspectives and trends in motivation research in general, and then address issues of motivation relating specifically to the study of language and communication. It will conclude by looking ahead to future research directions. It is argued that in language motivation studies, researchers sharpen their focus on more selective aspects of language (e.g., pragmatic development), and adopt approaches to analysis that are more sensitive to the dynamic interplay of motivation, language, context and social relations. This general trend bodes well for future research on motivation and the pragmatics of language and communication, for, much work remains to be done to illuminate this under-researched area. Relatively few studies e.g. have actually focused on the analysis of discourse itself in relation to emergent motivation, social relations and pragmatic context.