integrative motivation

Purpose: In today’s world learning a second language, especially English, has become vital for success, both academically and professionally. Yet, learners’ characteristics like affective features and linguistic background may impact either the ultimate level of achievement. Methodology: This study was carried out to determine whether there is a difference in test anxiety, attitude, integrative and instrumental motivation of the monolingual and bilingual university students in English. To this end, 227 questionnaires obtained from freshman university students majoring in various fields from 125 bilingual students at the University of Payame Noor and Islamic Azad University of Meshkin Shahr and 125 monolingual students at the Payame Noor University of Qazvin in Iran. Three Independent t-tests were run to compare these two groups’ attitude, instrumental and integrative motivations and test anxiety. Findings: The findings revealed that the bilingual students had a significantly more positive attitude and showed a significantly higher integrative motivation towards learning English. However, no significant difference was observed among the two groups regarding their instrumental motivation and test anxiety. Discussion: Pedagogical implications of the study will be discussed. The bilingual students possess a higher level of motivation towards learning English language than do the monolingual students.

Research has not investigated the motivation of students toward learning Persian as a foreign/second language. This study examines the integrative, instrumental, intrinsic, and extrinsic types of motivation among language learners learning Persian as a second language. A questionnaire consisting of 40 questions, adapted from Gardner (2001), Ryan and Deci (2000), and Noels et al. (2001), was used to collect the required data. Statistical procedures were followed to analyze the data from 135 (59 females and 73 males) language learners. Results showed that integrative and extrinsic were respectively the most and the least significant forms of motivation among these participants. They reasoned that they mainly learn Persian language to understand Persian art, literature and history, increase their knowledge, and communicate with Iranians. Variables such as gender, education, and age showed significant differences among the males and females concerning instrumental and intrinsic types of motivation. Furthermore, whereas the results indicated significant variation between the participants’ education levels and their integrative motivation, there was not any significant relationship between the age and motivation.