M.A. Thesis:

A comparison of motivation level among Iranian EFL learners in higschools and private institutes

Motivation has been considered as one of the most important factors for successful second and foreign language acquisition. The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of motivation among Iranian high school EFL learners in public and private schools and the factors affecting their motivation. A mixed method design was used for data collection that included a Likert scale questionnaire and an open-ended one. 59 language learners were selected according to their scores on the OPT as the main participants of the study from both public and private schools. This placement test was administered to ensure that the intended participants were roughly at the same level of language proficiency. An adapted version of Gardner’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (1985) was employed to collect the data on the learners’ level of motivation and an open-ended question was used to collect data on the factors causing motivation. To investigate the possible differences among the participants regarding their motivation level in both groups, (t-test) was run. The findings of the study revealed that the learners’ motivation in private schools was significantly higher than that in public schools. Furthermore, it was found that some factors such as class size, use of technology, teacher characteristics, facilities, interaction, textbook quality, and assessment types were among the factors that influenced the learners’ higher motivation level in private schools.

Keywords: motivation, public and private schools, Gardner’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery