Motivation and Attitudes towards learning English: The case of 1st year EFL students at the University of Sidi Bel-Abbès

Motivation and Attitudes towards learning English: The case of 1st year EFL students at the University of Sidi Bel-Abbès

Linda, Ben-Yelles

Language learning is strongly affected by different affective variables. Motivation has a nucleus role in one’s learning process. However, the purpose of this article is to examine students’ motivation and attitudes towards learning English. I am going firstly to investigate students’ motivation in terms of Instrumental and Integrative motivations based on Gardner’ definitions, then, I will regard to their attitudes vis à vis the importance of English in various contexts namely: The Educational context, The Algerian social context and The Cultural context, and for a better understanding, I have conducted a study with 1st year EFL students from the University of Sidi Bel-Abbès. To collect data for this research, a questionnaire is submitted to fifty students. As a close look to the students’ motivation, the findings show that students are firmly in favour of Instrumental Motivation; their views are related to job opportunities and media. As far as students’ attitudes are concerned, they hold a favourable attitude towards both English language and culture.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05-04

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