Motivation in the Classroom: Factors That Motivate Students to Learn English at PUCESE
Abstract
Motivation is a main concern to the teaching-learning process because it involves a complete community, but there are different factors that affect it depending on the learner. This research adopted a quantitative method and the Dörnyei's motivational framework in order to find out PUCESE students' opinion about their own motivation to learn English, but an additional component was included to the framework: parent-specific motivation. The items to form the questionnaire were chosen from the Wong (2007) Questionnaire, and it was answered by 70 PUCESE General English students. The results showed that the professor is the most significant factor affecting PUCESE students' motivation to learn English in General English Classes. On the other hand, parents are not statistically important, but they play a central role in supporting PUCESE students', economically or affectively. Finally, PUCESE students affirmed they have an instrumental purpose to learn English, which is a key for accelerating academic and career success. Finally, the most important thing about English courses is that students learn everything they can use in their daily life, so the teacher needs to adapt the General English materials according to the students’ career, goals and interests, since students’ reason for learning English is to have a good job with an excellent salary.
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