Language Motivation, Metacognitive Strategies and Language Performance: A Cause and Effect Correlation

Studies on motivation in language learning have been well documented. The role of motivation in determining the use of learning strategies has been identified and the correlation between motivation and language performance has been determined. However, how language motivation in EFL context is classified and how language motivation is intercorrelated with the use of metacognitive and language performance has still not become widespread in the literature on language learning. The current study identified how language motivation in the context of EFL setting was classified and, then, how language motivation affected the use of metacognitive strategies and language performance. It was found that in the EFL setting three motivational orientations existed; the three motivational orientations were extrinsic motivation, international orientation and intrinsic motivation. The findings revealed that the EFL learners in the current study had more international orientation in learning English and were more extrinsically motivated than intrinsically motivated. The empirical evidence suggests that language motivation predicted learning success through the mediation of the use of metacognitive strategies. Suggestions for further research are also discussed.