In this article we will discuss how teachers, principals, student counselors, and other professionals in education, can enhance the quantity and the quality of students' motivation by affecting what students are motivated for (i.e., their academic achievement goals) and the reasons why they strive to reach those goals. Based on Achievement goal theory and on Selfdetermination theory we will discuss these qualitative differences in students' motivation and we will explain why teachers should create a learning environment that fosters these more optimal types of motivation. / En este artículo se discutirá cómo los profesores, directores, consejeros escolares y otros profesionales de la educación pueden mejorar la cantidad y la calidad de la motivación de los estudiantes, trabajando en el “qué” los motiva (metas de logro académico, por ejemplo) y en el “por qué” (razones) ellos luchan por alcanzar estas metas. Con base en la Teoría de las Metas de Logro y en la Teoría de la Autodeterminación, se discutirán las diferencias en la calidad de la motivación de los estudiantes y se explicará por qué los profesores deben crear un ambiente de aprendizaje que promueva formas óptimas de motivación.

In view of the scarcity of studies that in Sweden aim to investigate the relationship between motivation and linguistic competence of heritage speakers (Montrul, 2010: 9), the present study has two objectives: (a) examine if motivation, here understood as total motivation, is correlated with language proficiency of Spanish heritage speakers, enrolled in mother tongue classes, and (b) determine whether or not the underlying motivational subtype is decisive for the learning results, in Spanish, achieved by these students.    The motivation and linguistic proficiency of 51 students were surveyed through a questionnaire based, in part, on the self-determination theory and a proficiency test divided in two parts: a cloze test and a multiple-choice test. Owing to the limitations of the study, the main group studied consisted of 41 students, who were either born in Sweden or had arrived here before the onset of puberty, defined as an age of more than 11.     The analyses showed that only the identified regulation, a more autonomous type of extrinsic motivation, is related to the heritage speakers’ score on the cloze test, hence indicating that the concept of relatedness emphasized by Ryan & Deci (2000) and the value placed on the Spanish language by this group, is linked with the range of their lexical knowledge. Factors that could influence the group’s linguistic proficiency, such as the number of hours spent speaking Spanish each time it was used (more or less than three hours) and the years of residency in a Spanish speaking country, were also investigated. Only the first variable, contact hours, showed a statistical significance; the second variable did not. These findings might lead to the reflection that although parental involvement is crucial, heritage speakers’ linguistic development requires a concerted effort not only by the parents, but also the school and the educational institutions, encouraging students to explore their identity and linguistic background through activities directly related to their own self-perceptions and interests.