Cognitive motivation of polytechnic students in learning English

This article is devoted to the research of cognitive motivation in foreign language acquisition among the students of St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University. Different views on the definition of motivation, its structure and its concatenation with the process of learning are presented. The possible motives of foreign language acquisition are considered and the results of а survey among first-year polytechnic students are analyzed. Team activities are analyzed as essential for raising motivation.