Motivation and Language Proficiency: Instrumental and Integrative Aspects

This study investigated the relationship between motivation and language proficiency of Iranian EFL learners studying in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia UTM. Two aspects of motivation were considered in this paper i.e. instrumental and integrative. 100 Iranian students studying in UTM and from different faculties served as respondents to reflect a variety of ideas about learning a second language. Participants were those with IELTS band score 6 and above high achievers and below 6 low achievers. An integrative and instrumental motivation nineteen-item questionnaire adopted from standardized questionnaires such as Attitude Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) 1 & 2 was used as the instrument of the study. The results of correlation study revealed that high achievers’ language proficiency correlated well with integrative motivation r=.72. This indicated that high achievers L2 learners were highly integrative motivated.