MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDE OF SAUDI UNIVERSITY'S LEARNERS OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Abstract

This study examined the affective factors that intervene in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL), either for Specific Purposes (ESP) or General Purposes (EGP), for Saudi university students, and how these affective factors might relate to achievements of the learners of English as a foreign language. Sub-domains investigated included: motivation, anxiety, attitude towards, integrativeness, and instrumentality. A survey determined students' major, gender, motivation level, anxiety towards English use and English class, and attitude towards English teachers and courses. Participants rated their affective factors on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) twice. At the beginning of the semester they took the pre-test, and 12 weeks later, they took the post-test of the same items, which had been scrambled into a different order. The results were as follows: there were no within-subject significant changes in motivation, attitude, and anxiety at the time of the post-test for either group except for the ESP group's attitude (M = 3.07, SD = .68), which ended up significantly lower than the attitude of the EGP group (M= 3.66, SD= .48). The learners' achievement on English, measured by their scores on the final English test, correlated more with the attitude, motivation, and anxiety of the EGP group than the ESP group. The ESP group achieved significantly better on English final exams, with (M=57.83, SD=25.605), compared to the EGP group, with (M=71.56, SD=17.063). Attitude, motivation, and anxiety within the same gender did not change significantly from the pre-test to the post-test, except that the males ended up with their attitude lower, with (M= 3.15, SD= .46), compared to the females' attitude, with (M= 3.72, SD= .52). Across majors there were significant differences on all three affective factors. The EGP group were more instrumentally and integratively motivated than the ESP group, with (M = 3.9, and SD = .59) for instrumentality and (M = 3.96, and SD = .59) for integrative motive compared to ESP instrumentality, with (M = 3.6 and SD = .59), and (M= 3.5 and SD = .59) for integrative motive.