Investigating Students’ Motivation towards Learning English in the Department of English at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou: The case of First-Year students

Abstract

The present study investigates first-year students’ motivation towards learning English in the department of English at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou. It aims to figure out to what extent first year students are motivated to learn English as well as the different factors that motivate and demotivate them. Our research relies on an integrated approach combining Dornyei’s and Williams and Burden’s frameworks of second language motivational strategies. To collect data, we administered a questionnaire to one hundred and four (104) students. In addition, another questionnaire was administered to their teachers and an interview was conducted with them. For the analysis of data, a mixed-research method was used. The study, in fact, combines quantitative and qualitative methods. We used statistical analysis and Qualitative Content Analysis for both results obtained from the two questionnaires. As regards the interpretation of the teachers’ interview, we followed the Qualitative Content Analysis method. The main finding of the teachers’ questionnaire indicates that the majority of teachers (55.55%) responded that their students are motivated to learn English. On the other hand, the main results of the students ‘questionnaire indicate that 47% of the respondents are ‘sometimes’ and 21.15% are ‘often’ motivated by their teachers. As regards the demotivational factors, our findings show that factor relating to “fear of making mistakes” with 44.23%, “shyness” with 28.85% and “anxiety” with 19.23% is the most common. Finally, on the basis of the results obtained we reached the conclusion that the majority of first-year students are motivated to learn English and their teachers motivate them to learn it using different techniques and strategies.