A quantitative study of motivational orientations of Iranian learners of English

Motivation has long been regarded as a key factor in the success of language learning and continues to hold sway in second and foreign language research. This quantitative study investigates the motivational orientation of Iranian learners of English. The data were collected by means of a 49-item questionnaire which was adopted from Kato, Yasumoto and Aacken (2007) and rendered into Persian. The participants consisted of 313 EFL learners (149 females and 164 males), aged 12-49 (mean=18.7 years), from a variety of English proficiency groups, from beginner to advanced. The findings indicated that, regardless of proficiency, the vast majority of the participants (over 80%) are integratively motivated as expressed through their strong inclination to have interaction with the cultural group who speak English natively or individuals from various cultures. Notwithstanding, neither element of the instrumental/integrative dichotomy strongly predicted the participants’ motivational orientation. Furthermore, independent samples ttests indicated that there are significant differences between males and females in their motivational orientation. More precisely, males were more inclined to gain financial benefits from learning English than females did, thus viewing the learning of English through instrumental lens. Males also regarded themselves as more competent in mastering the skills taught, felt less uncomfortable while speaking in class and experienced more considerable unease on exams and were more inclined toward competitive environments of learning than females. In conclusion, evidenced by the failure of the instrumental/integrative paradigm to predict learners’ motivational orientation, learning English is regarded both as a means to gain access to more readily tangible resources (e.g., education, career and technology) and to appreciate its speakers’ cultural values and norms.