Motivation and English Achievement in Mexican Teacher Students: A Correlation Study

Abstract

The study aimed to measure the correlation between the motivation to learn English as a foreign language and the achievement level in students in the first semester of the Bachelor’s degree in Primary Education at a higher education school “Escuela Normal Oficial de Irapuato” (ENOI). These future teachers of basic education are of interest due to the high impact they have on the education of future generations in Mexico. The present study comprised a quantitative non-experimental correlational research. Gardner´s attitude/motivation test battery (Gardner, 1985) was used to measure motivation and the Oxford on-line Placement Test scored the students’ English level achievement. The motivation results show the high motivation intensity these future teachers have to acquire English as a foreign language, both for integrative and instrumental reasons; the average is 5.79 points out of 7. The English achievement results showed that 67% of incoming students barely reached an A1 which is less than 20 points out of 120, even though, it did not include a speaking section which has been reported as one of the most difficult abilities. The Spearman’s rank correlation was calculated at 0.2430 using the results before mentioned. Based on these grounded findings, the authors propose focusing on specific learning areas that can better prepare these futures teachers to take advantage of their own students’ crucial period.