Motivational Aspect of Student’s Language Learning Style in Differentiated Instruction of English for Specific Purposes

Abstract

This study aims to research the opportunity of applying the motivational aspect of the language learning style in differentiated instruction of English for specific purposes (ESP) to information technology students (IT) through defining their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; to determine the students’ levels of motivation; to compare motivation of the third- and fourth-year students, their desire to master the IT profession and study ESP; to define the factors which balance students’ motivation. A mixed research design was employed. The participants were 234 third-year students and 231 fourth-year students, mostly males, aged from 20 to 22 years who studied at technical university during 2017‒2019 academic years and volunteered to take part in the study. To collect the data, the questionnaires by Rean and Iakunіn “Studying the motives of students’ learning”, Ilina “Learning motivation at the university” and Dubovitskaya “Methodology for diagnosing the learning motivation orientation” were used. Although we revealed that students’ intrinsic motivation to study ESP and master the IT profession was stronger than extrinsic motivation, we also found that the dominance of intrinsic or extrinsic motives in students may depend on the situation and particular ESP activity. The support of students’ high level of motivation and development of students’ medium and low levels of motivation should rely on the factors which help to balance students’ motivation.