The Relationship between L2 Motivational Self-System and Students’ Intended Effort to Learn English

The present study investigates the relationship between three motivational variables known as “ideal L2 (second language) self”, “ought-to L2 self”, and “attitudes to learning English” and students’ intended effort to learn English. To achieve the goals of the study, 200 university students were randomly selected. A questionnaire of 32 items was administered to two groups of students: university non- English majors (108 samples) and university English majors (92 samples). In addition to the questionnaire, a semi-structured interview conducted for providing qualitative information about participants’ underlying reasons for their beliefs they offered in the questionnaire. The results of the correlation coefficient proved a strong relationship between the “ideal L2 self” and the intended effort to learn a second language for both groups. The L2 Learning experience correlated with intended effort for both groups, too; while, the ought- to L2 self was significant only for non- English major ones. Further, gender specific correlational study shows that females had a stronger correlation than male participants. Moreover, in the interview participants claimed that their imagination about their future self was very important for them. However, the ought to L2 self was more important for the non- English major, and all the members believed that they absolutely enjoy their learning experience. Comparing the results of the interviews with the ones from correlations, similarities emerged. The findings suggest the importance of students’ capacity to visualize themselves as L2 speakers in language learning. The main pedagogical implication is for teachers so that they can help their students to create an “ideal L2 self” probably by proposing tasks that provide situations for contacting with native speakers.