Potential roles of motivation and teaching strategies in communicative compentencies among Palestinian University students

Motivation and teaching strategies are generally believed to enhance students‟ communicative competence in English as a foreign language; yet, there is not much empirical evidence to support this claim. The present study was intended to focus on the effects of motivational factors and teaching strategies on the communicative competence among the Palestinian undergraduates. In the First Phase, one hundred and eighty participants, who are studying English language in three Palestinian universities, answered a questionnaire. The questionnaire included items derived from Gardner‟s 1985, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007 Attitude/Motivation Test Battery AMTB and items from Dörnyei 2001, Cheng and Dörnyei 2007 and Guilloteaux and Dörnyei 2008 teaching strategies framework for foreign language classrooms. In the Second Phase, 6 participants, from same universities, were interviewed. The quantitative results indicated that participants‟ communicative competence is significantly affected by motivation and teaching strategies. Also, the qualitative results indicated that teaching strategies do not directly affect students‟ communicative competence, but rather affect their motivation. Consequently, the current study added substantively to the literature concerning the effects of motivation and teaching strategies in Communicative Competencies among EFL learners in the Palestinian context, and some suggested procedures and suggestions that help improve learners‟ communicative competences.