THE EFFECT OF ATTITUDINAL AND MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS ON

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING: A STUDY OF PAKISTANI

STUDENTS AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

Submitted by:
MUHAMMAD AKRAM

Submitted to:
DR. MAMUNA GHANI

CHAPTER DIVISION:
CHAPTER-1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER-2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

CHAPTER-3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER-4: DATA COLLECTION

CHAPTER-5: DATA ANALYSIS (QUALITATIVE)

CHAPTER-6: DATA ANALYSIS (QUANTITATIVE)

CHAPTER-7: FINDINGS

CHAPTER-8: CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.1-INTRODUCTION:
The present study will explore the relationship between attitudinal and motivational factors and
students academic achievement level. Several contextual factors, i.e. L1 proficiency, level of
similarity between L1 and L2, and attitudinal and motivational factors make L2 learning a
difficult process. Many theorists and researchers have found that it is important to recognise the
construct of motivation not as a single entity but as a multi-factorial one. Motivation is an
important factor in L2 achievement and attitude is more than ability. It provides the main
incentive to initiate learning a foreign language and later the determination to preserve and
sustain the learning process.
In Pakistani community where different languages co-exist, language attitude plays an important
role in the lives of the users of these languages. Today there are more non-native than native
users of English and English has become a world language. English language enjoys a high
status in Pakistan as the language of Education, law, science, technology, Government and a
lingua franca among the provinces.
The most effective way to get insight into the learning process is to study the learners attitude
and motivation towards learning English language. It is generally agreed that positive attitudes
facilitate the learning process, though attitude does not necessarily determine behavior.
The American Educator's Encyclopedia defines motivation as a psychological concept in
human behavior that describes a predisposition toward a particular behavior to satisfy a specific
need (Dejnozka and Kapel, 1991, p.361).
Dornyei and Otto (2001:9) define motivation as:
"...the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates,
amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes
and desires are selected, prioritized, operationalised and (successfully or unsuccessfully) acted
out".

1.2-STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

Generally it has been observed that similar objectives, policies, programs, curricula, facilities,
equipments and administrative structure are exercised in a college but all students do not attain
the same level of achievement. Obviously all the components related to teaching are valuable
and play positive role in high-level academic attainments of students. In order to examine
language- learning in the Pakistani context, it is necessary to explore a number of factors i.e.
attitudes, motivation, beliefs, anxiety etc. Most of the motivation theorists assume that
motivation is involved in the performance of all learned responses; that is, a learner behavior will
not occur unless it is energised. In a developing country like Pakistan there is a dire need to study
the effect of attitudinal and motivational factors on students' academic achievement.

1.3-OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The main objectives of the study are as under:

1- to determine the motivation level of students towards the subject of English.
2- to assess the achievement of students in the subject of English.
3- to investigate into the relationship between the students' motivation and their
achievement in the subject.

1.4.1-VARIABLES:
Achievement of the students in English language classes will be the main dependent variable.
The independent variables are as following.

1.4.2-Student Related Variables:

i- Age
ii- L1 of the student
iii- Parental encouragement
iv- Education of parents
v- Size and income of family
1.5-DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

As the research is focused on the relationship between students achievement and their attitudinal
and motivational intensity, so:
a) - the study will be delimited to the intermediate level only.
b) - the study will be delimited to the colleges of Multan division only.
c) - the study will be delimited to the students of English language class only.
d) - both male and female students will be included in the subjects.

1.6-SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:

The study aims at providing a deeper understanding of various aspects of English language
learning motivation. This study will possibly provide additional insights in better identifying
motivational challenges and in taking a more realistic perspective about the ELT (English
Language Teaching) situation in the country. It may encourage teachers to determine the
relationship between students attitude and achievement in the subject of their interest. This study
will provide base for some future research work in this field.

2-REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE:

The importance of the learner's attitudes and motivation plays a greater role in second language
acquisition. Motivation is defined as the learner's orientation with regard to the goal of learning a
second language: Motivation is divided into two basic types: Integrative and Instrumental.
Integrative motivation is characterized by the learner's positive attitudes towards the target
language group and the desire to integrate into the target language community. Instrumental
motivation underlies the goal to gain some social or economic reward through L2 achievement,
thus referring to a more functional reason for language learning.
Socially grounded motivational constructs in such models as Gardner's (1985) socio-educational
model and Clment's (1980) social context model continue to be influential in the field of L2
learning. However, since the early 1990s, a number of L2 motivation researchers have proposed
new L2 motivation constructs to expand Gardner's and Clement's L2 motivation frameworks by
applying motivation theories established in the field of educational psychology (e.g., Crookes
and Schmidt, 1991; Drnyei, 1994; Noels, 2001; Noels, Pelletier, Clment, and Vallerand, 2000;
Oxford and Shearin, 1994; Tremblay and Gardner, 1995).
The Gardner's (1979) socio-educational model of second language acquisition focuses on four
individual variables: intelligence, Language aptitude, and motivation and situation anxiety.
Gilksman, Gardner and Smith (1982) demonstrated that integrative motive plays major function
in effecting achievement in a second language by orienting students to work on every
opportunity possible to improve language proficiency, sustaining the motivation and enthusiasm
in classroom.
Brown (1981) makes the distinction between attitude and motivation. He identifies three types of
motivation (1) Global motivation that consists of a general orientation to the goal of learning a
L2; (2) situational motivation, which varies according to the situation in which learning takes
place and (3) task motivation, which is the motivation for performing particular learning tasks.
Ellis' view is that global motivation clearly corresponds to Gardners and Lambert's concept of
motivation and task motivation seems to be consistent to Gardner and Lambert's sense of
attitude; but Ellis (1985) thinks situational motivation is a new concept that does not appear in
Gardner and Lambert.
Noels et al. (2000) have proposed combining motivation constructs in Deci and Ryan's (1985)
self-determination theory with those incorporated in Gardner's and Clment's models in order to
develop a more comprehensive L2 motivation model (Noels, 2001; Noels, Clment, and
Pelletier, 2001). In self-determination theory, motivation constructs are distinguished along a
continuum of two dichotomous motivation behaviors, namely, intrinsic (more self-determined)
and extrinsic (less self-determined; more externally controlled) motivation. In Noels et al. (2001:
429-431), one of the issues investigated was the degree to which extrinsic and intrinsic
motivation constructs and L2 achievement are related. The results of the co relational analyses
indicate that, to some degree, intrinsic motivation is positively correlated with L2 learning
persistence and achievement
Noles (2001) remarked that motivation to language learning is a complex set of variables
including effort; desire to achieve goals, as well as attitude toward the learning of the language.
Individuals motivation in second language learning also include their motivation orientations,
interest in the second language, attitude toward the second language group, attitude toward the
second language learning situations and second language anxiety.
Schumann (1978, 1986) mentions attitude as a social factor along with other variables like size
of learning group, motivation as an effective factor alongside cultural shock. He proposes and
lays out the Acculturation Model in which he examines the effects of personal variables such as
relative status, attitude, and integration, amount of time in the culture, size of the learning group
and cohesiveness of the group on adult language learning. He suggests that the degree of
acculturation determines the level of second language learning. When an individual chooses to
acculturate and experiences success, the motivation to learn the L2 increases.
Stern (1983:376-7) distinguishes three types of attitudes in second language learning situation:
(a) Attitudes towards the community and people who speak the L2 (group specific attitudes), (b)
Attitudes towards learning the language concerned: and (c) Attitude towards languages and
language learning in general. These attitudes are likely to be influenced by the kind of
personality the learner possesses-for example whether they are 'ethnocentric' or authoritarian.
They may also be influenced by the particular social milieu within which the language learning
process takes place.
Stephen Krashen (2002) hypothesizes the 'effective filter' that consists of various psychological
factors, such as, anxiety, motivation and self-confidence that can strongly enhance or inhibit
second language acquisition. An input rich environment is required where the learners can be
relaxed, motivated and self confident in acquiring the second language successfully. Krashen
(2002) contends that learners with high motivation, self confidence, a good self image and a low
level of anxiety are well equipped for success in second language acquisition.
In the Pakistani context, it is necessary to explore these factors i.e. attitudes, motivation, beliefs,
anxiety etc in order to assess the students achievement in English language learning. The present
study highlights these particular attitudinal and motivational factors that are involved in English
language learning in Pakistan.
3.1- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The present study will explore the relationship between intensity of attitude and motivation and
students' academic achievement level. For this purpose students will be given a questionnaire to
find out their motivation level. An academic achievement test (OPT) will also be conducted.
Data from these research tools will be collected and then analysed by using T-test of independent
samples and correlation coefficient. On the basis of motivation level questionnaire students will
be divided in two groups:

A)-Students with high attitude and motivation level.

B)-Students with low attitude and motivation level.

Arithmetic means of academic achievements of these groups will be compared by T-test.

For this purpose the following null and alternative hypotheses are formed:
 3.2-HYPOTHESES:

Null Hypothesis: 1 Alternative Hypothesis: 2

There is no difference between means ofNon-directional alternative hypothesis will be
academic achievements of students belongingadopted if the null hypothesis is rejected.
to high attitude and motivation level group Uh=/=Ul
and low attitude and motivation level group. That implies
Uh=Ul Either Uh>Ul
Where Uh stands for high motivation level Or Uh<Ul
and Ul stands for low motivation level.

Significance level will be 0.05 to reject or retain the null hypothesis. Correlation between
motivation level and academic achievement will be calculated to know the intensity of
relationship between these variables.
3.3-SUBJECTS:

The data will be collected from the intermediate students of different colleges of Multan division.
Total number of the students will be 250- 150 males and 100 female students from colleges of
Multan division.

3.4-COLLEGES:

For the purpose of study following colleges will be selected:

1- Government College Burewala
2- Government College for Women Burewala
3- Government College Vehari
4- Government College for Women Vehari

4-DATA COLLECTION:

The data will be collected through a set of questionnaire adapted from Gardners (1985) Attitude
and Motivation Test Battery (AMTB). The data collection process involves achievement based
English language test (OPT) and questionnaires to check the students' attitude and motivation
level. Personal data sheets and questionnaires will be distributed to collect quantitative data.

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