The Relationship between Motivation and Pronunciation: A case of Iranian EFL learners

Abstract

There is no doubt that motivation is one of the most important factors in the field of second language acquisition. This study, based on Gardners’ socio-educational model of motivation, seeks to find the relationship between motivation with regard to integrativness and instrumentality and pronunciation skill of upper intermediate students. To this end, 40 intermediate students who were studying at Alborz English institute were selected based on their score on PET test. Gardner’s Attitude and Motivation Test battery (AMTB) was used to measure students’ motivation and their orientation i.e., intergrativness and instrumentality. The statistical analysis indicated that motivation and both types of it correlated significantly with pronunciation skill of students, Moreover regarding the distinction between integratively and instrumentally motivated groups and their pronunciation skill, the study demonstrated that as Gardner & Tremblay (1994) state “these two motivational components are not antagonistic counterpart but are often positively related.†The Instrumental and Integrative orientations have shown to be positively correlated with one another. This seems reasonable since someone who is oriented to learn a language for integrative reasons might well recognize the instrumental value of learning the language and vice versa. It is hoped the result of this study coupled with other studies put an end to simplistic classification in literature and research.