The present study aimed to shed light on the relationship among students' socioeconomic status, self-reported English proficiency level, the length of attending private institutes, and L2 motivational factors namely: ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, L2 learning experience, integrative motivation, and intended effort. Participants were 320 Iranian students studying English at secondary schools in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. Data were collected through closed-ended questionnaire items entailing EFL motivational factors, socioeconomic status, and demographic information. The results of Spearman Rho test revealed weak or no meaningful relationship between the students' socioeconomic status and their L2 motivation suggesting that socioeconomic status is not an indicative of the school students’ EFL motivation regarding tripartite variables of Dörnyei's (2009) L2 Motivational Self System, integrative motivation, and intended effort. However, the length of attending in private language courses and the self-reported English proficiency of the students indicated moderate correlations with their L2 motivation and socioeconomic status. Current findings bear a clear message to the Iranian education policymakers that despite adopting a communicative approach in the latest official English course books, non-official private language institutes still perform more effectively than the Iranian formal education system does in maintaining and enhancing students’ EFL motivation.
