Factors That Motivate 10th Grade Jordanian Students to Learn the English Language in the Arab Model School

This study aims to investigate the factors that motivate 10th grade Jordanian students in learning the English language in the Arab Model School and the difficulties that they encounter in learning the English language. A combination of the quantitative and qualitative research designs were adopted in this study. For data collection, a questionnaire on factors of motivation adapted from Gardner's (1985) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) was administered to a sample of 80 of 10th grade students who had been selected randomly at the Arab Model School. A semi-structured interview was also conducted with 10 students selected randomly from the sample. The interview was aimed at eliciting in-depth information from students on factors that motivated them to learn the English language and the difficulties they encountered. The findings show that social, parents’ encouragement, teacher’s style and desire to learn English motivated them to learn the English language. When compared, it was found that more students were instrumentally rather than integratively motivated to learn the English language. The findings support the model by Tremblay and Gardner (1995) that both instrumental and integrative motivations play an important role in influencing second language learning. The limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are also provided. Some implications which are of significance to educators, researchers and the Ministry of Education of Jordan are suggested to help motivate students to learn the English language. It is hoped that the findings of this study would help enhance the teaching and learning of the English language in the Arab Model School.