Motivation for learning English among science undergraduates in Sri Lanka : an investigation into the second language learners' selves, goals and attitudes

That English language education and university designed English courses need to be changed to address the learner needs, wants and lacks to meet the requirements of globalisation is aknown issue in Sri Lanka, but there is a very little empirical evidence to show the issue. The identification of lea...

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Main Author:	Kariyawasam Sittarage, Nilushika Prasangani.
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2016
Subjects:	L Education (General) PE English
Online Access:	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/26243/1/Kariyawasam.pdf
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id	my-unimas-ir.26243
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-unimas-ir.262432023-08-30T02:44:33Z Motivation for learning English among science undergraduates in Sri Lanka : an investigation into the second language learners' selves, goals and attitudes 2016 Kariyawasam Sittarage, Nilushika Prasangani. L Education (General) P Philology. Linguistics PE English That English language education and university designed English courses need to be changed to address the learner needs, wants and lacks to meet the requirements of globalisation is aknown issue in Sri Lanka, but there is a very little empirical evidence to show the issue. The identification of learner needs, wants and lacks with relation to English learning motivation at the university level remains very important for the peace building and nation building process of Sri Lanka. The failure of addressing learners' needs and wants (specially among rural youth) caused for the civil unrest of the country for decades. In fact, this thesis investigates the factors affect for the English learning motivation of the Sri Lankan public university youth. This thesis uses an existing psychological construct of Dornyei (2009) L2 Motivational Self System to investigate the factors affect for the English learning motivation of the Sri Lankan science undergraduates. By utilizing the construct, the study aims to determine the primary factors that affect for the Sri Lankan science undergraduates' English learning motivation, to analyse the differences in terms of factors affect for L2 learner motivation based on the urban and rural needs and to evaluate the differences between factors according to war affected and non-war affected learner .-+ backgrounds. This study uses a quantitative approach to arrive at the major aims. Data were collected from 918 Sri Lankan university students through a questionnaire study. The two-part questionnaire looked at the motivated learning behaviour, ideal L2 self, ought to L2 self, social goals, mastery goals, performance goals, attitudes toward learning English and attitudes toward L2 community. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used as the major analytical tool for the identification of causative relationships between the factors and to develop the comparative models. The results of the study provided substantial support for the validity and usefulness of L2 Motivational Self System in the Sri Lanka context. The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is the strongest contribution of the ideal L2 self in science undergraduates' English learning motivation. It was also shown that the ideal L2 self is the strongest contributory factor of rural and war affected science undergraduates' motivation compared to the urban and non-war affected science undergraduates' motivation. The second major finding was that the significant contribution of social goals to examine the Sri Lankan science undergraduates' English learning motivation. In sum up the. findings suggest the personal and contextual factors affect for the English learning motivation of the Sri Lankan science undergraduates. These findings have important implkations for the Sri Lankan universities, education policy and L2 motivation theory. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2016 Thesis http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/26243/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/26243/1/Kariyawasam.pdf text en validuser phd doctoral Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) Faculty of Language Studies & Communication Studies
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
collection	UNIMAS Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	L Education (General) L Education (General) PE English
spellingShingle	L Education (General) L Education (General) PE English Kariyawasam Sittarage, Nilushika Prasangani. Motivation for learning English among science undergraduates in Sri Lanka : an investigation into the second language learners' selves, goals and attitudes
description	That English language education and university designed English courses need to be changed to address the learner needs, wants and lacks to meet the requirements of globalisation is aknown issue in Sri Lanka, but there is a very little empirical evidence to show the issue. The identification of learner needs, wants and lacks with relation to English learning motivation at the university level remains very important for the peace building and nation building process of Sri Lanka. The failure of addressing learners' needs and wants (specially among rural youth) caused for the civil unrest of the country for decades. In fact, this thesis investigates the factors affect for the English learning motivation of the Sri Lankan public university youth. This thesis uses an existing psychological construct of Dornyei (2009) L2 Motivational Self System to investigate the factors affect for the English learning motivation of the Sri Lankan science undergraduates. By utilizing the construct, the study aims to determine the primary factors that affect for the Sri Lankan science undergraduates' English learning motivation, to analyse the differences in terms of factors affect for L2 learner motivation based on the urban and rural needs and to evaluate the differences between factors according to war affected and non-war affected learner .-+ backgrounds. This study uses a quantitative approach to arrive at the major aims. Data were collected from 918 Sri Lankan university students through a questionnaire study. The two-part questionnaire looked at the motivated learning behaviour, ideal L2 self, ought to L2 self, social goals, mastery goals, performance goals, attitudes toward learning English and attitudes toward L2 community. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used as the major analytical tool for the identification of causative relationships between the factors and to develop the comparative models. The results of the study provided substantial support for the validity and usefulness of L2 Motivational Self System in the Sri Lanka context. The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is the strongest contribution of the ideal L2 self in science undergraduates' English learning motivation. It was also shown that the ideal L2 self is the strongest contributory factor of rural and war affected science undergraduates' motivation compared to the urban and non-war affected science undergraduates' motivation. The second major finding was that the significant contribution of social goals to examine the Sri Lankan science undergraduates' English learning motivation. In sum up the. findings suggest the personal and contextual factors affect for the English learning motivation of the Sri Lankan science undergraduates. These findings have important implkations for the Sri Lankan universities, education policy and L2 motivation theory.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Kariyawasam Sittarage, Nilushika Prasangani.
author_facet	Kariyawasam Sittarage, Nilushika Prasangani.
author_sort	Kariyawasam Sittarage, Nilushika Prasangani.
title	Motivation for learning English among science undergraduates in Sri Lanka : an investigation into the second language learners' selves, goals and attitudes
title_short	Motivation for learning English among science undergraduates in Sri Lanka : an investigation into the second language learners' selves, goals and attitudes
title_full	Motivation for learning English among science undergraduates in Sri Lanka : an investigation into the second language learners' selves, goals and attitudes
title_fullStr	Motivation for learning English among science undergraduates in Sri Lanka : an investigation into the second language learners' selves, goals and attitudes
title_full_unstemmed	Motivation for learning English among science undergraduates in Sri Lanka : an investigation into the second language learners' selves, goals and attitudes
title_sort	motivation for learning english among science undergraduates in sri lanka : an investigation into the second language learners' selves, goals and attitudes
granting_institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)
granting_department	Faculty of Language Studies & Communication Studies
publishDate	2016
url	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/26243/1/Kariyawasam.pdf
_version_	1783728308434763776

Motivation for learning English among science undergraduates in Sri Lanka : an investigation into the second language learners' selves, goals and attitudes

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