The Effect of University Students’ Motivation and Attitude on Test Performance: Construction and Validation of an Instrument on English Proficiency Test

Abstract

This study aimed at constructing and validating an instrument by which the impact of test-takers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and attitude towards English Proficiency Test (EPT) would be discovered on test performance. To this end, a mixed methods research design was developed. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews and in the quantitative part, a questionnaire was constructed and its reliability and validity were confirmed along with structural equation modeling. The findings demonstrated a positive relationship between motivation and EPT test performance, but attitude played a more significant role in test performance among the variables of the study.