Exploring the Roles of Integrative and Instrumental Motivation on English Language Acquisition among Iranian Medical and Dentistry Students

Abstract

Motivation is an important aspect of language acquisition. This study was devised to determine the motivational orientations of medical and dentistry students at Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences (RUMS) in English language acquisition. In this cross- descriptive study, 200 students of the dentistry and medical schools were chosen by census sampling method in 2009. The data gathering method was the integrative and instrumental motivation scale of Gardner, which was adapted to a 5 point likert's scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to disagree (2), neutral (3), agree (4) and strongly agree (5). The questions of 1-12 indicated the integrative and 13-25 indicated the instrumentality motivation. Two open ended question were included to measure language self efficacy of the students to rate their own English proficiency level and elicit qualitative information to see whether there has been any change in the level of their motivation. The data were analyzed, using SPSS14, t test and Chi square: The results indicated that the students were highly motivated to learn English and there was no statistically significant differences on instrumental versus integrative motivational orientations of these students (p=0.07). This study indicated high motivation for learning English among the medical and dentistry students at RUMS. Considering the importance of learning English for the students, language teachers and program developers should assist the students and plan better and comprehensive programs for teaching English at the university level which would include involving the students in the actual use of the English language.