The effects of student identities on English as a foreign language learning motivation in a Saudi university context.

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Motivation has been identified as one of the most important factors in the language learning achievement of English foreign or second language students. Moreover, identity is regarded as one of the most significant aspects of motivation. Both motivation and identity are complex ideas. Therefore, a robust theoretical framework is required to investigate their role in language learning. The L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) proposed by Dörnyei (2005) represents such a theoretical framework which considers the self as the focal point of language learning motivation. The L2 Motivational Self System involves the student's ability to visualise him/herself as a successful English user in the future. The students' efforts to learn English are driven by their desire to reduce the discrepancy between their present low proficiency selves and their future, ideal, desired selves that are proficient English users.The present study involves applying the L2 Motivational Self System to investigate the language learning motivation of Saudi university students. However, the present study identifies a need for the L2MSS to be expanded for more effective application to the learning context of the present study. The L2MSS is predicated on the primacy of the self in language learning motivation. However, it narrowly focuses on two self aspects, the Ideal L2 Self and the Ought-to L2 Self. The L2MSS overlooks the significance of present selves to the motivation of English language students. Therefore, ideas from the Identity Based Motivation theory and the Motivated Identity Construction theory are used to expand the L2MSS. Previous studies mainly utilised quantitative research methods which produced limited results. For that reason the present study employs a mixed methods approach. This comprises of students and lecturer questionnaires. Qualitative data collection methods are student interviews and an open-ended question in the lecturer survey.The main findings of the current study are that multiple identities are implicated in the language learning motivation of the students who participated in this study. The findings show that the Ideal L2 Self does not represent the ideal self of students in this learning context, but rather, it denotes the ideal self that others desire for these students. This conclusion is based on the fact that the communicative proficiency espoused by the Ideal L2 Self is not the driving force behind the language learning efforts of these students. They are rather motivated by their immediate academic needs and their future career aspirations. Furthermore, the current study establishes that multiple identities contribute toward their motivation to learn English. Among these identities the present actual identities of students are found to be significant contributors to their motivation. The current study also identifies a Western bias in the L2MSS in that it assumes that all those who learn English do so for the purpose of communicative proficiency because they need English to be functional in their everyday lives. The L2MMS ignores the primacy of the students' L1 for this purpose. The same bias also overlooks the important role that duties and responsibilities play in motivating people as opposed to the individualistic notion of Western cultures that assume that people are motivated only by their own ideals and desires.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University