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Motivation and Attitude Towards Learning English: A Case Study of Rasht Islamic Azad University
Motivation and Attitude Towards Learning English: A Case Study of Rasht Islamic Azad University
Motivation and Attitude Towards Learning English: A Case Study of Rasht Islamic Azad University
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Abstract
The current study aimed at investigating the two most important social psychological variables: The motivation
and attitude towards learning English. A random sample of 145 BA and MA students majoring English at
Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran was surveyed using the Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery. The eight
domains used to achieve the aim of the study were: (1) interest in foreign languages (2) parental encouragement
(3) motivational intensity (4) degree of integrativeness (5) degree of instrumentality (6) attitudes towards
learning English (7) attitudes toward English-speaking people and (8) desire to learn English. The findings
showed that there is a relationship between motivation, attitude, and language learning. In addition, the
findings indicated that there is not any difference between male and female and also undergraduate and
postgraduate students’ motivation and attitude toward learning English at Islamic Azad University of Rasht.
Finally, the study reported some pedagogical implications that would help tap the students’ motivation and
attitude.
Key Words: Attitude, English learning, intrinsic, instrumental integrative, extrinsic, motivation
Introduction
Language learning is regarded as the cornerstone of human existence. Knowing the language can help us to
express our opinions, hopes, and even our dreams (Tavil, 2009). In a foreign language context, the learning
process is affected by various factors such as motivation, attitudes, anxiety, learning achievements, aptitudes,
intelligence, age, and personalities, (Gardner, 1960; Lehmann, 2006, cited in Shams, 2008). Among these,
affective factors such as motivation and attitude are very decisive and essential contributing. Therefore, the
instructors and educators should take these factors into account. The progressive works by Gardner and
Lambert since 1959 onwards are dependable proofs that these factors have a great bearing.
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. In fact, it is the combination of
effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language which leads to a conscious decision to act, and
which gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in order to attain previous set goals.
Second and foreign language motivation has been researched in different paradigms and numerous language
learning contexts in the past decades (Dörnyei, 2005). As we all know, motivation is one of the most important
factors that will influence students' English achievements or performance. It has a close relationship with
students' success or failure in English teaching in college.
Gardner and Lambert (1972) mentioned two types, or better to say, two orientations for motivation:
integrative-oriented motivation and instrumental-oriented motivation. The former applies to cases when
language is learned as a desire to integrate into the target language community; and the latter refers to cases
where language is learned with the intention of achieving a certain external reason like getting a job. Integrative
motivation refers to a wish, by a learner, to integrate into, become an accepted member of the community whose
language that person is learning.
Harmer (1983) categorized motivation into two major types; extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic
motivation deals with behavior performed for its own sake, in order to experience pleasure and satisfaction,
such as a sense of achievement, self-esteem, pride in solving the problem, enjoyment of the class, being able to
use the languages desired. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation involves performing a behavior as a means to
an end and usually involves other consequences of success on the task: such as prizes for doing well, getting the
job of one’s choice, a higher position, gaining some certificate on a test score.
Another influential affective factor influencing the success of students in learning a language is attitude.
Holmes (1992: 346) states that “people develop attitudes towards languages which reflect their views about
those who speak the languages, and the contexts and functions with which they are associated. Kara (2009)
stated that attitudes towards learning besides opinions and beliefs have an obvious influence on students’
behaviors and consequently on their performance.
Wenden (1991) suggested a broader definition of the concept “attitudes”. He says that the term attitude
contains three components namely, cognitive, affective and behavioral. A cognitive component is made up of
the beliefs and ideas or opinions about the object of the attitude. The affective one refers to the feeling and
emotions that one has towards an object, 'likes' or 'dislikes', 'with' or 'against'. Finally, the behavioral component
refers to one consisting of actions or behavioral intentions towards the object.
Literature review
Motivation research had received much attention in the past decade. Results of research reported by Liuoliene
and Metiuniene (2006, p.96) on second language learning motivation revealed that “students’ wishes and needs
to work independently depend on their motivation, attitude and responsibility. The higher motivation, the more
autonomous learning students want to have in this learning process.” They further concluded, learning
motivation is a driving force in learning a foreign language.
Qashoa (2006) conducted a study among secondary school students in Dubai. The study aimed at (a)
examining the students’ instrumental and integrative motivation for learning English, and (b) recognizing the
factors affecting learners’ motivation. The findings showed that students have a higher degree of instrumentality
than integrativeness. Also, the results indicated that difficulties with the subject (English) aspects such as
vocabulary, structures and spelling were found to be the most de-motivating factors for the student.
Another study was that of Al-Quyadi (2000) who looked at Sana'a University English majors’
motivation and attitudes towards learning English; it was carried out to investigate the psycho-sociological
variables in the learning of English in the faculties of Sana’a in Yemen. The results showed that the students had
a high level of both instrumental and integrative motivation toward the English language. With regard to their
attitudes, the findings indicated that the students had positive attitudes towards the English language and the
use of English in the Yemeni social and educational contexts.
In the non-Arab EFL context, Vijchulata and Lee (1985) investigated the students’ motivation for
learning English in University Putra Malaysia (UPM).The findings revealed that UPM students are both
integratively and instrumentally oriented towards learning the English language. Vaezi (2008) claimed that
Iranian students had very high motivation and positive attitudes towards learning English and they were more
instrumentally motivated. Whereas Moiinvaziri (2008) claimed that students in her study were highly motivated
in both instrumental and integrative orientation.
In an experiment, Hassanpur (1999) administered a background questionnaire and an inventory for
learning strategy to 102 science students studying English as a special course at Shiraz University. Although the
strategy mean of students with positive attitude was higher than that of those with negative attitude, the
difference was not found significant (P<.05). In her study she found that integratively-motivated students
employ more memory and cognitive strategies than instrumentally-motivated ones.
Carreira (2011) conducted a study on Japanese children’s motivation for studying the language and
found a developmental decline in intrinsic motivation for studying in English lessons. However, as Dornyei and
Schmidt (2001) have pointed out, L2 motivation research has reached maturity. Motivational basis of second
language acquisition is a fertile ground for research. In 2009, Dornyei and Ushioda confirmed that L2 motivation
is currently in the process of being radically re-conceptualized and re-theorized in the context of contemporary
notions of self and identity.
Makrami (2010) examined the effects of motivation and attitude on Saudi university learners in English
for specific purposes (ESP) compared to a sample of students learning English for general purposes (EGP).
Results showed that the learners’ achievement on English, measured by their scores on the final English test,
correlated more with the attitude, motivation, and anxiety of the EGP group than the ESP group.
Shams (2008) conducted a study attempting to investigate students’ attitudes, motivation and anxiety
towards learning of English. The findings underlined that the students had affirmative attitudes and high
enthusiasm towards English. This also highlighted that most of them showed positive attitudes towards English
language and its learning which, in turn, emphasized the value of English language efficiency in the daily life.
Momani (2009) also investigated the secondary stage students’ attitudes towards learning English as a
foreign language and their achievements in reading comprehension. The findings showed that the respondents
had neutral positive attitudes toward learning English. Also, there was a strong correlation between the
students’ attitudes toward learning English and their performance in reading comprehension.
Regarding the gender variable, Fakeye (2010) investigated the correlation between attitude and
achievement in English among 400 senior secondary students. The findings revealed that there was a significant
relationship between attitude and achievement. Additionally, it was explored that students’ attitude is not
gender-related. Thus, there was not a statistically significant difference in the attitudes of male and female
students.
Musa (1985) investigated the EFL students’ attitude toward studying English in the United Arab
Emirates using a five-point scale questionnaire. The findings underline that students had positive attitudes and
extreme eagerness towards learning English; they valued English language efficiency in the daily life. Besides
Musa, Suliman (2006) studied the students’ attitudes towards and motivation for learning English in the UAE
state secondary school. The findings reveal that the UAE students had a higher degree of instrumental
motivation and that students had unfavorable attitudes towards learning certain areas of the language.
Xiong (2010) found in her study that the girls were more interested in English and their motivations in
learning English were stronger than the boys’. Many of the girls answered in her study that they liked English or
were interested in the language while most of the boys were not interested in English, which shows that the
school girls´ internal motivation is stronger than the school boys´ when studying a second language.
Research question
To achieve the objectives, the following corresponding questions were formulated for the present study:
RQ1: Is there a relationship between motivation or attitudes and learning English?
RQ2: Is there any difference between male and female students’ motivation in learning English?
RQ3: Is there any difference between male and female students’ attitude in learning English?
RQ4: Is there any differences between undergraduates’ and postgraduates’ motivation and attitude level in
learning English?
Methodology
Design of the study
This study adopted a descriptive and inferential survey design to investigate the motivation and attitude of
English teaching and translation students towards learning English.
Participants
In this study 100 undergraduate and 45 postgraduate university students both male and female were selected,
sampling from the total population of English language students of Islamic Azad University of Rasht, during
academic year 2014/2015. The 145 participants were composed of 35 males and 110 females.
Instrumentation
The motivational questionnaire was adopted from the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) (Gardner,
1985), (see Appendix) with integrative and instrumental orientation scale. The questionnaire consisted of 6-point
Likert scale format ranging from ‘Strongly agree’ to ‘Strongly disagree’. Some items in the questionnaire were
either modified or removed to suit the study population. Since the students came from almost the same
academic background, they were all students of English teaching and translation, the questionnaire was
administered in English and they were given 30 minutes to complete it.
The questionnaire consisted of two parts: The first part included some general information of respondents:
gender, age, year of study, credit unit they passed, previous term average, fields of the study. The students’
demographic data in this study served not only as general information, but also as a criterion to categorize the
respondents for later analysis. The second part contained the questionnaire items.
Data analysis
The participants’ responses to the questionnaire were analyzed in terms of descriptive and inferential statistics.
Descriptive statistics (mean, frequency & standard deviation) were carried out for all items involved in the study
and the inferential tool used was Mann-Whitney U test.
Result
The main purpose of the current research was to investigate EFL students’ attitudes and motivation towards
English language learning at Azad University in Rasht. Moreover, it aimed to examine the possible differences
between male and female EFL students in terms of their motivation and attitudes of learning English language
and whether there was a difference in motivation and attitude toward learning English between postgraduate
and undergraduate students of Islamic Azad University of Rasht.
Descriptive statistics including means and standard deviations were computed for the items of the
questionnaire (the eight sections). Additionally, Mann Whitney U test was run on the results of the
questionnaire (male and female) and also level of education (undergraduate and postgraduate) to examine the
possible difference between Iranian EFL males and females' motivation and attitudes toward learning the
English language and also if there was a difference between undergraduates’ and postgraduates’ motivation and
attitude toward learning English. This section presents the results of data analyses in order to provide answers
to the above questions and to test the research hypotheses.
To analyze the Likert-scale responses for general attitudes and motivation towards learning English, frequency
distributions and percentages were determined through the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS, version
22)
Table 1. Summary of Item Statistics for Correlations of items
Mean Minimum Maximum Range Maximum Variance N of Items
Minimum
Item Means 4.128 1.224 5.684 4.461 4.645 1.452 46
Inter-Item Correlations .106 -.461 .717 1.178 -1.556 .043 46
As it is observed, the total mean of the whole items of the questionnaire came to 4.128 which indicated that the
positive answers were more than the negative answers. The total standard deviation of all items equaled 1.2 and
the inter item correlation was computed as .106. The description of the eight domains of motivation and attitude
test battery were analyzed and the questionnaire items are provided in the appendix.
The first domain which was interest in foreign language was descriptively analyzed. The total mean of
the positive answers of this domain came to 5.125 with the standard deviation of 1.707 which shows a relatively
consistence performance on the questionnaire. The total mean of the negative answers was achieved as 1.703
with the standard deviation of 1.377. The chi square for positive items equaled 4.615 and it was 0.336 for
negative items. It can be derived that more participants answered positive items rather than the negative ones.
This indicates that most participants had interest in the foreign language that is English in this case.
The total mean of the positive answers of the second domain that is desire to learn the foreign language
came to 4.858 with the standard deviation of 1.286. The total mean of the negative answers was achieved as 2.376
with the standard deviation of 1.704. The chi square for positive and negative items Chi (X 2) = 262.767. This
shows that generally the participants have a desire to learn English with a higher mean of 4.858 compared with
the mean of 1.286 for negative answers.
The third domain is parental encouragement. As it is observed, the total mean of the items equaled
4.114. Most participants agree that their parents give priority to English. This item had the highest mean score in
parental encouragement items which was equaled 3.496.
The fourth domain which is motivational intensity has some positive and negative items. The total mean
score of the positive answers equaled 4.341 which was relatively higher than the total mean of the negative
answers which equaled 3.496.
Domain five belonged to attitudes towards learning English. The total mean score for the positive part
of the domain came to 5.271 and for the negative part 2.188. This shows that most of the sample participants had
a positive attitude toward the English language.
Domain six is attitudes towards English–speaking people. The overall mean score for this domain came
to 4.558 with the standard deviation of 1.31. The highest mean belongs to item in which the respondents like to
have more English friends. The lowest mean belonged to item which mentioned English speaking people are
very friendly and easy to get along with. Generally, most of the participants preferred to have a native English
friend.
Domain eight is the degree of integrative motivation. This domain had a total mean of 6.281. The highest
mean of 5.26 belonged to the item which stated they like to read magazines and newspapers in other languages.
Having compared instrumental with integrative motivation in terms of their total mean score, we
observed that integrative motivation received a higher mean of 6.281 than that of instrumental with a mean of
4.721.
Table 2. Durbin–Watson Correlation Test between Learning English and Motivation and Attitude
The Durbin–Watson statistic is a test statistics used to detect the presence of correlations between values
separated here as motivation and attitude and language learning. As it is obvious from the analysis, the
significance level equaled .000 which is meaningful. .000 is smaller than .05.
Also R = 0.712 which shows there is a cause and effect relationship between the variables. The Durbin Watson
indicates 2.073 which prove the existence of the relationship between motivation and attitude with language
learning. Accordingly, the first null hypothesis is rejected and it is concluded that such relationship exists. To
answer the first research question, we can state that there is a relationship between attitude and motivation and
learning a foreign language.
The Ranks table is the first table that provides information regarding the output of the actual Mann-Whitney U
test. It shows mean rank and sum of ranks for the two groups tested in terms of their gender.
Table 4. Mann-Whitney U Test for Relation between Gender and Motivation and Attitude
independent
316.500
Mann-Whitney U
2269.500
Wilcoxon W
-.814
Z
.415
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
a. Grouping Variable: gen
Table 4 shows the actual significance value of the test. Specifically, the Test Statistics table provides the test
statistic, U statistic, as well as the asymptotic significance (2-tailed) p-value.
Regarding the second hypothesis of the study, as the first table above shows, the gender was regarded as an
independent variable which was taken as 1 and 2 to represent different genders of male and female. The ranks of
the scores were compared with each other, and in the second table a Mann-Whitney U test was conducted. The
table shows the significance level as .415 which is smaller than .05 and proves the null hypothesis that there is no
significant difference between males and females in terms of their attitude and motivation toward learning
English.
Accordingly, to answer the second and third research questions, based on the second hypotheses result we can
state that there is no difference between male and females regarding their motivation and attitude.
In order to investigate the variable of level of education (undergraduate students vs. postgraduate students) for
third hypothesis, the following table explains if there is any relationship between the education level and
motivation and attitude toward learning English. At first it was necessary to have the rank table to gain
information on the output of mean rank and sum of ranks for the two groups tested in terms of their education.
MA 45 35.2 304
Total 145
Table 6. Mann-Whitney U Test for Relation between Education and Attitude and Motivation
independent
418.98
Mann-Whitney U
4648.0
Wilcoxon W
-.419
Z
.213
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
Table 5 shows the relationship between the variables of education level and motivation and attitudes of the
population. Education was regarded as an independent variable. The ranks of the scores were compared with
each other. In the second table 6 a Mann-Whitney U test was conducted, indicating that the significance level
was computed as .213. This amount is also smaller than .05 which ascertains that the population of the study
with different educational backgrounds did not show any significant difference in their attitudes and
motivation. As such there was no relationship between the level of education and the attitude and motivation of
the participants in the present study.
Discussion
This section provides answers to the research questions. The first question of the study investigated the EFL
students’ attitudes and motivation towards English language learning at Azad University in Rasht. And the
second question was to find possible differences among males and females regarding their attitudes and
motivation. As the analysis shows, the significance level equaled .000 which is meaningful. .000 is smaller than
.05. Also R = 0.712 which shows there is a cause and effect relationship between the variables. The Durbin
Watson indicates 2.073 which proves the existence of the relationship between motivation and attitude with
language learning. Accordingly, the first null hypothesis is rejected and it is concluded that such relationship
exists. To answer the first research question, we can state that there is a relationship between attitude and
motivation and learning a foreign language.
The results demonstrated that integrative motivation received a higher mean of 5.181 than that of instrumental
with a mean of 4.721. Most of the participants preferred to have a native English friend. More participants have a
positive attitude toward English when we compare the positive total mean as 5.271 with that of negative mean
as 2.188. Regarding participants’ motivational intensity. The total mean score of the positive answers equaled
4.341 which was relatively higher than the total mean of the negative answers. This shows that generally the
participants have a desire to learn English with the higher mean of 4.858 compared with the mean of 1.286 for
negative answers. Most participants had interest in the foreign language. To answer the second and third
research questions Mann-Whitney U test was conducted which showed the significance level as .415 which is
smaller than .05 and proves the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference between males and females
in terms of their attitude and motivation toward learning English.
Conclusion
The present study attempted to analyze Rasht Islamic Azad University students’ motivation and attitude
towards learning English. The study revealed that very few of the learners possessed negative attitudes towards
learning English, majority of them possessed moderately positive attitudes and few had strongly positive
attitudes.
The participants of the study had moderate levels of motivation, integrative and instrumental orientations. It
was also disclosed that there was no difference in male and female motivation and attitude towards learning
English.
Although the results of the present study cannot be generalized to other language learners due to its being a
small-scale research study, the study can be considered to be a first step in analyzing students’ attitudes,
motivation and respect to their gender. Teachers or researchers interested in attitudes and motivation can
benefit from the present study in developing insights into the attitudes, motivation and gender differences, and
the study can be exploited to investigate similar research questions in larger number of students with different
methodological tools and it may also encourage researchers to pursue results that can be generalized to all
language learners studying in Iran.
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Appendix
Dear Student: The following questions ask about your motivation in and attitude toward learning the English
language. Remember there is no right or wrong answer; just answer as accurately as possible. Use the scales
below to answer the questions.
Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 indicate the degree of your agreement / disagreement with the ideas given. Please
mark only ONE choice:
1= Strongly disagree, 2=Moderately disagree, 3= Slightly disagree, 4=Slightly agree, 5=Moderately agree, 6=
Strongly agree