L2 Motivational Self and English Department Students’ Intended Effort

Abstract

Present-day EFL learner profiles differ in considerable respects from those of a few decades ago, characteristically in light of the realities of the twenty-first century where boundaries between societies and cultures are becoming less pronounced. One implication for language learning motivation among these students is the likelihood of their motivation turning out to be both varied and complex, an issue the present chapter purports to explore. The study aims to address the impact of the variables of, “Ought-to Self” (Dörnyei and Ushioda in Motivation, language identity and the L2 self. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, pp. 1–8, 2009), “attitude toward learning,” and “cultural interest” on the intended effort put on by Moroccan EFL learners. A 16-item questionnaire was administered to 72 Mohammed V University students belonging to two different academic levels. The first hypothesis in the study tests whether the foregoing variables have any bearing on learners’ intended effort, as recent motivation literature reports. The second hypothesis tests whether “employee” students (employees studying for the BA degree) exhibit any different motivational behavior from their “non-employee” counterparts. The regression model has shown that, among the three independent variables considered, only attitude toward the target language tends to impact learners’ intended effort. On another side, “employee” and “non-employee” groups are shown to differ at early stages of their university studies, but converge on similar patterns in their later stages.