The role of motivation, gender, and language learning strategies in EFL proficiency

النوع : Mémoire

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of motivation (inst rumental motivation, integrative motivation, effort, valence, expectancy, and ab ility), gender, and language learning strategies (memory, cognitive, compensatio n, metacognitive, affective, and social strategies) in English as a Foreign Lang uage (EFL) proficiency. Descriptive statistics (range, means, and standard devia tions), a Pearson Product-Moment Correlation analysis, an Independent Sample T-T est, and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) tests were conducted to answ er the questions raised in the study. The participants were 147 female and male undergraduate students enrolled in int ensive English classes at the American University of Beirut (AUB). The study emp loyed a survey design which involved administering two different questionnaires, the Motivation Scale (MS), developed by Wen (1997) and modified by Shaaban and Ghaith (2000), to measure motivation, and the Strategy Inventory for Language Le arning (SILL), developed by Oxford (1990), to measure Language Learning Strategi es (LLSs). In order to determine language proficiency, the verbal SAT scores wer e used. The results of this study revealed, at the P < .05 alpha level, that, although m otivation in general does not correlate with EFL proficiency, effort does, in fa vor of the high proficient. The findings also revealed no significant gender dif ferences in overall motivation; however, females make more effort and have a hig her perception of the valence of learning EFL than males. In addition, the resul ts did not show a significant role for gender in EFL proficiency. Furthermore, the results showed that overall strategy use does not play a signif icant role in EFL proficiency; however, the results revealed a low, negative cor relation between the use of metacognitive strategies and proficiency. The findin gs also revealed that the most frequently used strategies were the cognitive and metacognitive strategies (with a significant correlation between them), and the least frequently used strategies were the affective strategies. Finally, the re sults showed no significant role for gender in the overall use of language learn ing strategies, but they showed significant differences between males and female s in their use of memory, cognitive, and compensation strategies, ...