Motivation and Interlanguage Pragmatics in Iranian English Language Learners

Hassan Rasouli Khorshidi,Abdolreza Bagherzadeh Nimchahi

doi:10.5539/elt.v6n6p86

Abstract

It is generally believed that interlanguage pragmatics and motivation play important roles in learning. Motivation is important because it determines the extent of the learner’s active involvement and attitude toward learning. The major purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of integrative and instrumental motivation on the development of interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) in Iranian English language learners. A secondary goal of this study was to assess the effect of the type of motivation on pragmatic transfer. To this end, the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) developed by Gardner (1985) was given to the students to distinguish learners with integrative and instrumental motivation. Finally, 40 integratively and 40 instrumentally motivated learners were selected as participants. Then, a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) regarding pragmatic transfer developed by the researchers was administered to the two groups. Two weeks later another interlanguage pragmatics Discourse Completion Task (DCT) was administered in order to elicit the required data from both groups. The findings demonstrate that there is a significant relationship between type of motivation and interlanguage pragmatic development and the amount of negative pragmatic transfer as well. More precisely, this study revealed that integratively motivated learners performed significantly better than instrumentally motivated learners in both ILP development and pragmatic transfer.

Highlights

One distinguishing feature between native and non-native speakers is their proficiency in interlanguage pragmatics
The findings demonstrate that there is a significant relationship between type of motivation and interlanguage pragmatic development and the amount of negative pragmatic transfer as well
This study was designed to address the important issue of pragmatic development with regard to the type of motivation of Iranian EFL learners

Summary

Introduction

One distinguishing feature between native and non-native speakers is their proficiency in interlanguage pragmatics. It is often the case that even advanced language learners who have learned a great deal of words, idioms, and grammar, fail to communicate meaning appropriately in certain contexts. A number of individual factors such as motivation can be crucial to language learning. Motivation, highlighted by Ames and Ames (1989) is important because it determines the extent of the learner's active involvement and attitude toward learning. According to Gardner (1985) motivation is “the extent to which an individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity” According to Gardner (1985) motivation is “the extent to which an individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity” (p. 10)

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Methods

Conclusion