Motivation and Students’ Academic Success in Learning English as A Second Language

Abstract

The purpose of the study reported here is to investigate the relation between the level of attainment in English of a sample of 100 English major students at the University of Bahrain and their degree of motivation in learning the language. The results demonstrate no significant association between the motivational variables and students’ academic success in English. In spite of being highly instrumentally and interactively orientated and holding a high degree of motivation while learning the language, neither of these did attribute to their success in the subject matter. Thus Gardner and Lambert’s motivational theory is not found to be workable among these students. Their academic success correlates highly significantly with their proficiency in the language. In other words, the more proficient they are in English, the more successful they are in their academic disciplines. The results obtained for the motivational variables were in contrast with the results of most studies undertaken in second language learning situations and are thus interpreted as perhaps reflecting the role played by the monolingual and monoculture background of the students. For the motivation to work among the group of learners studied here, they need to have opportunities of coming into contact with speakers of the language. Both types of motivation need perhaps to be fostered by positive parental attitudes towards the language and by the students’ own willingness to accept themselves as bilinguals.