THE MOTIVATION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS TO LEARN ENGLISH
Vol.6, Issue 1, 2020, pp.5-28 Full text
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.20.1.1
Web of Science: 000569121600003
Authors:
Zarina Markova https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0760-1274
Affiliation: South-West University, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
Dessislava Yaneva https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3397-670X
Affiliation: South-West University, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
Contributor roles
Conceptualization: Z.M. (lead);
Investigation: D.Y (lead)., Z.M. (supporting);
Methodology: Z.M, D.Y. (equal);
Data curation: Z.M. (lead);
Formal Analysis: Z.M. (lead), D.Y. (supporting);
Project Administration Z.M., D.Y. (equal)
Resources, Supervision, Visualization: ZM (lead);
Writing original draft, Writing – review and editing: Z.M. (lead).
Abstract
This article reports on the findings of a study investigating the motivation of Bulgarian undergraduates of International Relations to learn English as a second language (L2). First, we consider language learning motivation in the context of three influential theoretical developments in research on motivation. Then, we report on a small-scale survey aiming to define the motivational profile of students of International Relations through the lens of the L2 Motivational Self System. The analysis of the survey data reveals similarities with findings of previous research as regards the favourable attitude towards English language learning, the prominent role of the ideal L2 self in the motivational pattern, and some doubt over the relation between the ought-to L2 self and the intended learning effort. The study results also indicate relations between travel orientation and the ought-to L2 self, and between the two types of instrumental motivation which have not been reported in previous research. These motivation peculiarities are explained through the specifics of the surveyed group that refer to students' aspirations and potential careers in international relations.
Keywords: language learning motivation, the L2 Motivational Self System, foreign language learning
Article history:
Submitted: 20 February 2020;
Reviewed: 17 March 2020;
Revised: 29 March 2020;
Accepted: 6 April 2020;
Published: 30 June 2020
Citation (APA):
Markova, Z., & Yaneva, D. (2020). The Motivation of University Students of International Relations to Learn English. English Studies at NBU, 6(1), 5-28. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.20.1.1
Copyright © 2020 Zarina Markova and Dessislava Yaneva
This open access article is published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. If you want to use the work commercially, you must first get the authors' permission.
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Data for this study are available under a CC-BY-NC 3.0 license at Mendeley Data.
Also in the References.
Markova, Z. (2020). The motivation of university students of International Relations to learn English (v1) ['Data set']. Mendeley Data. https://doi.org/10.17632/69t8tvbwzf.1
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