Motivations towards Learning English: The Case of Jordanian Gifted Students

Abstract

<p>The present study aimed at investigating the motivational orientations of Jordanian gifted<br />school students in Ajloun governorate. For this purpose, 51 students from King Abdullah II in<br />Ajloun governorate participated in this study. Data was collected through a questionnaire<br />contained 20 items asking about the motivational level and orientation of learners. The<br />questionnaire was adapted from Gardner’s (1985) AMTB (Attitude, Motivation Test Battery)<br />questionnaire. The researchers used descriptive statistics for identifying the students’ level of<br />motivation towards learning English. Independent samples T-test was used to investigate the<br />differences in the level of motivation according to gender. The findings revealed that the<br />students were highly motivated towards learning English language with higher scores<br />reported for the sake of instrumental motivation. Female students reported higher level of<br />motivation than male students with no statistically significant differences recorded<br />concerning this. Based on the results, some of the implications were presented and discussed.</p>