Motivation in Learning a Second Language

Motivation is an important individual difference (ID) variable to account for the variation in the language learning success. It is the factor that provides impetus required to start learning a second language, and later it becomes the driving force to sustain the long and tedious process of learning the language. To this end, the present study examined the motivation to learn English of Nepalese public high school learners, 13-16 years of age, in three districts of Nepal. Based on Dörnyei¿s (2005;2009) second language (L2) motivational Self System as the theoretical framework, this study employed a 63 item questionnaire to collect their view from 84 high school students and a semi structured interview to collect their opinion about learning English from 4 out of total sample. Correlation and regression analyses of the data showed that the main factors affecting learners¿ English language learning motivation was the Ideal L2 Self and attitude to learning English, which also provided empirical support for the main constructs of the L2 Motivational Self-System.