Attitude and Motivation affects English Language Proficiency of Engineering students: A Preliminary Survey through Adapted Attitude/Motivation Test Battery

Abstract

Language proficiency is one domain everybody on earth wants to conquer. Administering language proficiency into oneself is not a cakewalk. There is a dire need to explore and better understand how factors like attitude and motivation affect the language proficiency of engineering students. Motivation is an integral part of almost everything we do in day to day life. It becomes an essential component when we are working towards imbibing some skills into ourselves as a trait. Lack of motivation will never lead us to make ourselves a skilled person. Attitude too is also a stepping stone towards being skilled. Today’s engineers are defined by their effective skills and not based on their grade cards. This research tries to find to what extent engineering students’ English language proficiency gets affected by the attitudes and motivation they carry towards English as a language. R. C Gardener’s Attitude/Motivation Test battery Questionnaire was adapted for conducting the quantitative survey. This study is also focused on enhancing the theoretical knowledge about how the factors like motivation and attitude towards the English language can affect the language proficiency of students. The respondents included freshman engineering students. The analysis shows that majority of the students do have a positive inclination and attitude towards the English language. The attitude and motivation can get affected by the course content, pedagogy, and assessment of the course at the university level. The relationship between the language trainers and students has a stake in affecting the levels of motivation and attitude of the students towards the English language. Students are highly motivated towards the English language to have shown a 100% inclination towards improvement during the semester. One on one interviews with the student and classroom observations have shown high motivation and positive attitude towards the English language has a tremendous effect on the proficiency levels of the students. English language proficiency enhances the competency of engineering students. Conducive and a healthy environment with a well-designed course can foster students’ English language skills. The effectiveness of the language can not only help them in in-classroom assessment but also fare better during their on-campus placement interviews.