Students ’ attitudes and motivation for learning English at Dokuz Eylul University School of Foreign Languages

Attitudes and motivation are two of the key factors in second language learning since positive attitudes and high levels of motivation are considered as the predictors of a successful learning process. This study aims to reveal the relation between university preparatory students’ attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation at DEU School of Foreign Languages and to identify the factors which result in the differences in both their attitudes and motivations. This is a descriptive study with a quantitative approach. The data have been collected via the Attitudes Towards Leaning English Questionnaire and Language Learning Motivation Scale from 511 prep class students at Dokuz Eylul University, School of Foreign Languages. The data have been analyzed with means, frequency, multiple comparisons, Pearson correlation coefficient, t-test and One-way ANOVA. The results show that there is a significant positive relation between the learners’ attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation at Dokuz Eylul University, School of Foreign Languages. Additionally, it has been found that both their attitudes and their language learning motivation vary significantly in terms of some factors.


INTRODUCTION
Within the body of second language learning, motivation has been accepted as one of the key factors which have significant impact on the success of second language learning since motivation plays a crucial role in the language learning process.Moreover, all other factors are, to some extent, influenced by motivation.A general assumption underlying this view is that language learning is a complex phenomenon and it is influenced by diverse approaches.Due to the central significance of the topic as assigned by many practitioners and educators alike, motivation has held an important place within the body of L2 research during the past decades.According to Corder (1967: 164) a learner is highly likely to learn a second language as long as s/he is exposed to the language data.Gardner and Lambert (1972) also claim that language aptitude accounts for a considerable proportion of language learning.However, they state that motivational factors can play a larger role than the aptitude effect in learning a second language.
Indeed, there has been a vast amount of research concerning the complex nature of language learning motivation and its impact on the language learning process since in people the term motivation is being radically conceptualized in a constantly globalizing world (Dornyei and Ushioda, 2009).Motivation as a theoretical concept has been widely studied within the L2 field.
Motivation to learn a second language is a multi-faceted construct in that language system works at many levels at the same time.In other words, describing the nature of motivation requires particular care as the motivational base of attainment of a language is also related to having an identity when learning a second language.Therefore, L2 motivation involves a displayed personality as well as social dimensions (Dörnyei, 1998: 118).Likewise, as Gardner and Lambert (1972) emphasize integrative orientation as it has attracted great interest among researchers as it is intricately connected with social identification and ethnolinguistic identity albeit implicitly.
There is no question that learning a foreign language is different to learning other subjects.This is mainly because of the social nature of such a venture.Language, after all, belongs to a person's whole social being: it is part of one's identity and is used to convey this identity to other people.The learning of a foreign language involves far more than simply learning skills, or a system of rules, or a grammar; it involves an alteration in self-image, the adoption of new social and cultural behaviors and ways of being, and therefore has a significant impact on the social nature of the learner (William, 1994: 77) Within the body of L2 research, Gardner (1985: 10) defines motivation as '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.' Gardner (1985), in particular, suggests that the arousing of motivation is more important than the source of the motivating impetus.On the other hand, Lambert (cited in Gardner, 1991: 114) describes the psychology of second language learning as follows.
This theory, in brief, holds that an individual successfully acquiring a second language gradually adopts various aspects of behavior which characterize members of another linguistic-cultural group.The learner's ethnocentric tendencies and his attitudes toward the other group are believed to determine his success in learning the new language.His motivation to learn is thought to be determined by his attitudes and by his orientation toward learning a second language.The orientation is "instrumental" in form if the purposes of language study reflect the more utilitarian value of linguistic achievement, such as getting ahead in one's occupation, and is "integrative" if the student is oriented to learn more about the cultural community as if he desired to become a potential member of the group.It is also argued that some may be anxious to learn another language as a means of being accepted in another cultural group because of dissatisfactions experienced in their own culture while other individuals may be equally as interested in another culture as they are in their own.However, the more proficient one becomes in a second language the more he may find his place in his original membership group is modified at the same time as the other linguistic-cultural group becomes something more than a reference group Öztürk 377 for him.Depending upon the compatibility of the two cultures, he may experience feelings of chagrin or regret as he loses ties in one group, mixed with the fearful anticipation of entering a relatively new group.Brown (2001: 75) also states: "Motivation refers to the intensity of one's impetus to learn.An integrative orientation simply means the learner is pursuing a second language for social and/or cultural purposes, and within that purpose, a learner could be driven by a high level of motivation or a low level.Likewise, in an instrumental orientation, learners are studying a language in order to further a career or academic goal.The intensity or motivation of a learner to attain that goal could be high or low." Following these definitions, there are two orientations, instrumental and integrative, which received the most empirical attention in L2 motivational research.Integrative orientation refers to the desire to learn a second language in order to interact in the target language whereas instrumental motivation refers to more practical goals such as attaining an academic goal or getting promoted in a particular job (Noels, 2001).However, there are some other orientations as regards the attitudes and motivation of any learner.For instance, a learner might learn an L2 so as to show off to friends, or appear intellectually stimulated (Oxford and Shearin, 1994).The wish to learn an L2 may also derive from the need for a specific achievement or stimulation (Dörnyei, 1990).Dörnyei and Ushioda (1998) note various other orientations in terms of motivation such as travel, friendship, knowledge, etc.
Although there exists abundant research into the relation of attitudes and motivation, the effects of these two factors on language retention, fluency seem to be indirect as many of the changes are often insignificant (Reynolds, 1991).The purpose of this study, however, is to investigate the connection between university preparatory students' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation and identify the factors which result in the differences in both the attitudes and motivations of the learners who took part in the study.

Research Questions
1. Is there a significant relation between the learners' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation? 2. Do the learners' attitudes towards learning English vary significantly in terms of a. their gender, b. their age, c. the type of high school they graduated from, d. their language level, e. their father's level of education, f. their mother's level of education, g. their having studied English before or not, h. the time they spent to study English a week? 3. Does the learners' language learning motivation vary significantly in terms of a. their gender, b. their age, c. the type of high school they graduated from, d. their language level, e. their father's level of education, f. their mother's level of education, g. their having studied English before or not, h. the time they spent to study English a week?

METHOD
This study aims to reveal the relation between university preparatory students' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation at DEU School of Foreign Languages and identify the factors which result in the differences in both their attitudes and motivations.It can be considered as a descriptive study with a quantitative approach.Descriptive statistics tell what is there rather than trying to determine cause and effect.The purpose of a descriptive research is to describe, explain, and validate findings by describing naturally occurring phenomena without experimental manipulation which often leads a quantitative style (Seliger and Shohamy, 1989).Such type of research tends to construct statistical models and figures to explain what is observed and makes use of tools such as questionnaires, surveys, measurements and other equipment to collect numerical or measurable data (Dörnyei and Taguchi, 2010).Descriptive studies have an important role in educational research since they provide a great deal of feedback on what happens in schools (Jonassen and Driscoll, 2013).

Data collection instrument
In this study, the data have been collected via the Attitudes towards Leaning English Questionnaire and Language Learning Motivation Scale developed by the researcher.The questionnaires are a 5point Likert scale.There are 10 items in the attitudes scale and 17 items in the motivation scale.The participants were expected to decide to what extent they agreed with each item on a 5-point scale: (1) Strongly disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Neither Agree nor Disagree, (4) Agree, (5) Strongly agree.

prep class students at Dokuz Eylul University, School of Foreign
Languages participated in the study.Of the 511 participants, 193 females and 318 males did the questionnaires.The participants represented three language levels since 74 elementary, 334 preintermediate and 74 intermediate level learners were included in the study.75% of them had studied English before.They had also come from different types of high schools.The participant students followed an intense language program which required them to take 20-30 h of language instruction per week depending on their level.More detailed background information concerning the participants is presented in Table 1.

Data analysis techniques
The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).The statistical analysis with Means, Frequency, Multiple Comparisons, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, T-test and One-way ANOVA were carried out in order to find out the answers to the research questions.

FINDINGS
The findings of the study are presented in terms of the three research questions.

Is there a significant relation between the learners' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation?
A Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between the learners' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 2.
As shown in Table 2, there is a positive correlation between the two variables, r =.213, n = 511, p = .000.In other words, there is a strong, positive correlation between the learners' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation.Increases in the learners' attitudes towards learning English are correlated with increases in their language learning.

Do learners' attitudes towards learning English vary in
terms of their gender, age, the type of high school they graduated from, their language level, their father's level of education, their mother's level of education, their having studied English before or not, the time they spent to study English a week?
An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their gender.The results of the analysis are given in Table 3.
As can be seen in Table 3, there is not a significant difference in the scores for females (M=41.5,SD=3.77) and males (M=40.82,SD=4.69); t (509)=1.82,p = 0.69.These results suggest that gender does not have a significant effect on the learners' attitudes towards learning English.
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their age.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 4.
According to Table 4, there is a significant effect of age on the learners' attitudes towards learning English at the p<.05 level.Table 2. General the relationship between the learners' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation.

Language learning motivation
Pearson       .Taken together, these results suggest that the youngest and the oldest age groups really do have a significant difference from the other age groups in terms of their attitudes towards learning English.
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of the type of high school they graduated from.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 5.
According to Table 5, there is no significant effect of the type of high school on the learners' attitudes towards learning English at the p<.05 level [F(7, 503) = 1.404, p = 0.201].This result suggests that there is no significant difference in the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of the type of high school they graduated from.
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their language levels.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 6.
As can be seen in Table 6, there is a significant effect of language levels on the learners' attitudes towards learning English at the p<.A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their father's level of education.The results of the analysis are given in Table 7.
Table 7 presents that there is a significant effect of the father's level of education on the learners' attitudes towards learning English at the p<.05 level [F(4, 506) = 4.364, p = 0.002].Post hoc comparisons indicate that the mean score for the students whose father has a postgraduate degree (M = 42.43,SD =4.30) is significantly different from the ones whose father graduated from primary school (M =40.23,SD =3.83) and high school (M =40.09,SD = 4.63).Taken together, these results suggest that the students whose father has a post-graduate degree do have significantly more positive attitudes towards learning English than the other two groups.
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their mother's level of education.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 8.
According to Table 8, there is no significant effect of the mother's level of education on the learners' attitudes towards learning English at the p<.05 level [F(4, 506) = 1.212, p = 0.305].This result suggests that there is no significant difference in the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their mother's level of education.
An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their having studied English before or not.The results of the analysis are given in Table 9.
As can be seen in Table 9, there is not a significant difference in the scores for learners who studied English before (M=41.14,SD=4.11) and the ones who did not study English before (M=40.96,SD=5.09); t (509)=0.38,p = 0.70.These results suggest that whether they studied English before or not does not have a significant effect on the learners' attitudes towards learning English.
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' attitudes towards learning English in the time they spent to study English.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 10.
As can be seen in Table 10, there is no significant effect of the time spent to study English on the learners' attitudes towards learning English at the p<.05 level [F(4,   506) = 0.098, p = 0.983].This result suggests that there is no significant difference in the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of the time they spent to study English.
3. Does learners' language learning motivation vary in terms of their gender, age, the type of high school they graduated from, their language level, their father's level of education, their mother's level of education, their having studied English before or not, the time they spent to study English a week?
An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their gender.The results of the analysis are given in Table 11.
As can be seen in Table 11, there is a significant difference in the scores for females (M=43.02,SD=10.28) and males (M=47.16,SD=11.35);t (509)=-4.14,p = 0.00.These results suggest that gender has a significant effect on the learners' language learning motivation and males have a higher language learning motivation than females.
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their age.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 12.
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' language learning motivation in terms of the type of high school they graduated from.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 13.
Table 13.One-way ANOVA results for the learners' language learning motivation in terms of the type of high school they graduated from.According to Table 13, there is no significant effect of the type of high school on the learners' language learning motivation at the p<.05 level [F(7, 503) = .715,p = 0.659].This result suggests that there is no significant difference in the learners' language learning motivation in terms of the type of high school they graduated from.

Source of variations
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their language levels.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 14.
As can be seen in Table 14, there is a significant effect of language levels on the learners' language learning motivation at the p<.05 level [F(2, 508) = 16.267,p = 0.000].Post hoc comparisons indicate that the mean score for the pre-intermediate students (M = 43.61,SD = 11.24) is significantly different from the elementary group (M = 48.93,SD = 10.07), the intermediate group (M = 49.63,SD = 9.89).These results suggest that the preintermediate learners have significantly lower language learning motivation than the elementary and intermediate ones.
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their father's level of education.The results of the analysis are given in Table 15.
Table 15 presents that there is a significant effect of the father's level of education on the learners' attitudes towards learning English at the p<.05 level [F(4, 506) = 6.916, p = 0.000].Post hoc comparisons indicate that the mean score for the students whose father graduated from primary school (M = 50.59,SD = 9.19) is significantly different from the ones whose father graduated from secondary school (M = 44.52,SD = 11.22), has a university degree (M = 45.05,SD = 10.54) and a post graduate degree (M = 42.06,SD = 12.61).Additionally, the mean score for the students whose father graduated from high school (M = 47.53,SD = 10.41) is significantly different from the ones whose father has a post graduate degree (M = 42.06,SD = 12.61).Taken together, these results suggest that the students whose father graduated from primary school have higher levels of motivation for learning English than the other groups.Likewise, the students whose father graduated from high school have higher levels of motivation than the ones whose father has a post graduate degree.
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their mother's level of education.The results of   the analysis are presented in Table 16.
According to Table 16, there is significant effect of the mother's level of education on the learners' language learning motivation at the p<.05 level [F(4, 506) = 5.744, p = 0.000].Post hoc comparisons indicate that the mean score for the students whose mother graduated from primary school (M = 49.66,SD = 9.56) is significantly different from the ones whose father graduated from secondary school (M = 44.51,SD = 10.93),high school (M = 46.16,SD = 11.20) and has a university degree (M = 43.58,SD = 11.43) and has a post-graduate degree (M = 43.48,SD = 11.68).Taken together, these results suggest that the learners whose mother graduated from primary school have significantly higher language learning motivation than the ones whose mother graduated from secondary school, high school, university or a postgraduate program.
An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their having studied English before or not.The results of the analysis are given in Table 17.
As can be seen in Table 17, there is not a significant difference in the scores for learners who studied English before (M=45.86,SD=10.82) and the ones who did not study English before (M=44.80,SD=12.03);t (509)=0.93,p = 0.35.These results suggest that whether they studied English before or not does not have a significant effect on the learners' language learning motivation.
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the learners' language learning motivation in the time they spent to study English.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 18.
As can be seen in Table 18, there is no significant effect of the time spent to study English on the learners' language learning motivation at the p<.05 level [F(4, 506) = 0.196, p = 0.941].This result suggests that there is no significant difference in the learners' language learning motivation in terms of the time they spent to study English.

DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY
This study aims to reveal the relation between university preparatory students' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation at DEU School of Foreign Languages and identify the factors which result in the differences in both their attitudes and motivations.The results show that there is a significant positive relation between the learners' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation at Dokuz Eylul University, School of Foreign Languages.Additionally, it has been found that both their attitudes and their language learning motivation vary significantly in terms of some factors.
First of all, the findings indicate that there is a strong, positive correlation between the learners' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning motivation.That is, increases in the learners' attitudes towards learning English have correlated with increases in their language learning.The learners with more positive attitudes towards English tended to be more motivated to learn it.This finding is consistent with the one in Gardner (1968).Likewise, Çelikkaya (2013) found a significant relation between attitudes and motivation for learning a second language and Sham's ( 2008) study revealed that the participants had positive attitudes and high level of motivation towards learning English.Such positive relation has great importance since previous research has pointed out a strong relation between positive attitudes and achievement in language learning (Kazazoğlu, 2013;Genç and Kaya, 2011;Masgoret and Gardner, 2003).Therefore, it could be more beneficial to search on methods, techniques or applications which would foster positive attitudes and increase motivation in language learners (Al Kaboody, 2013;Gömleksiz and Yetkiner, 2012;Ushida, 2005).
Furthermore, the findings have revealed that the learners' attitudes towards learning English vary significantly in terms of their age, language level and their father's level of education.It has been found that the youngest and the oldest age groups have less positive attitudes towards learning English than the other age groups.Genç and Kaya (2011) have also proved a significant difference in attitudes towards learning English in terms of age, but it is the 22-year-olds who lead to the significant difference in that study.Additionally, the preintermediate level learners have showed more positive attitudes than the elementary and intermediate learners.On the other hand, no significant difference has been observed in terms of their gender, the type of high school they graduated from, their mother's level of education, their having studied English before or not, the time they spent to study English a week.There is a lot of research on attitudes and gender in literature, but the results vary.Some studies have revealed more positive attitudes for females (Çelikkaya, 2013;Shams, 2008;Aydoslu, 2005;Bağceci, 2004;Kobayashi, 2002) whereas in some others the males are more positive towards learning a language (Genç and Kaya, 2011).
Likewise, it has been found that the learners' language learning motivation varies significantly in terms of their gender, age, language level as well as their father's and mother's level of education.The findings have shown that males are more motivated to learn a language than females.However, previous research presents a tendency for females to be more motivated than males (Yılmaz, Öztürk 385 2012;Mori and Gobel, 2006;Acat and Demiral, 2002;Shaaban and Ghaith, 2000).Moreover, age is another factor which makes significant difference in language learning motivation (Tragant, 2006).Similar to age, language level creates significant difference in learners' motivation as the results suggest that the pre-intermediate learners have lower language learning motivation than the elementary and intermediate groups.There are also other studies proving the effect of language level on motivation (Shaaban and Ghaith, 2000;Lukmani, 1972).These results are consistent with the findings of Schmidt et al. (1996) indicating that age, gender and language proficiency play significant role in language learning motivation.

Conclusion
All in all, it is seen that there is a strong relation between the prep class students' attitudes and motivation for learning English at DEU School of Foreign languages.This indicates that more effort could be put in to help learners develop more positive attitudes towards learning English, and thereby to motivate them contributing to their overall achievement.Moreover, considering the other personal and affective factors, new ways, methods or techniques could be searched and developed in order to help the groups with negative attitudes and lower levels of motivation.

Table 3 .
Independent t-test results for the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their gender.

Table 4 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their age. *p<0.05.

Table 5 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of the type of high school they graduated from. *p<0.05.

Table 6 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their language levels. *p<0.05.

Table 7 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their father's level of education.

Table 8 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their mother's level of education. *p<0.05.

Table 9 .
Independent t-test results for the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of their having studied English before or not.

Table 10 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' attitudes towards learning English in terms of the time they spent to study English.

Table 11 .
Independent t-test results for the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their gender. *p<0.05.

Table 12 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their age. *p<0.05.

Table 14 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their language levels. *p<0.05.

Table 15 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their father's level of education. *p<0.05.

Table 16 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their mother's level of education.

Table 17 .
Independent t-test results for the learners' language learning motivation in terms of their having studied English before or not.

Table 18 .
One-way ANOVA results for the learners' language learning motivation in terms of the time they spent to study English.