THE EFFECTS OF MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES ON THE ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL OF EFL STUDENTS

Abstract

Motivation, regarded to become one of the prominent factors of the learning procedure, is a fundamental factor in studying English as a foreign language). In particular, studies have proposed various approaches to gain, maintain and encourage learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) over the last three decades. The relationship levels between students' cultural backgrounds and areas predicted by the L2 culture and as explained by the L2 Motivation Model, significantly affect their attitudes and motivations towards learning academic subjects. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to investigate the correlational relation between motivational factors and achievement level of a group of students studying English in a private language course in Istanbul. Also, the correlational relation between demographic factors, motivation and achievement level of the students are investigated. This study employed the survey approach design, which is one of the quantitative research methods. Participants of this study consisted of students randomly selected from a private language course located in İstanbul, in Turkey. 300 students answered a motivational factor questionnaire which was used as the main data collection tool in the study. The participant students were either studying English at the time of the study in the course or the ones who had previously taken private English lessons in the same course. Data collection was carried out online through using Google Docs system. The first part of the questionnaire contained questions about the participants’ age, gender, and parental English competency. The second part includes questions about the motivation determinants such as integration, instrumental, effort, valence and expectancy about motivation. To find out whether there is a correlation relation between motivational factors and the English v achievement level of the participants, their midterm and final exam scores are used. Midterm scores are taken as pre-test and final exam scores are taken as a post-test. The findings showed that young female EFL students are more motivated than young male students. Age is not a significant factor for the motivation dimensions. The students in the 31-40 age groups had the highest level of motivation on motivation dimension scales. Finally, descriptive analysis revealed that high achieving students were more motivated than low achievers.