Motivation And Attitudes Towards Learning English: A Study OfPetroleum Engineering Undergraduates At HadhramoutUniversity Of Sciences And Technology

This paper outlines the results of a survey which was carried out, to identify PetroleumEngineering students’ motivation and attitudes towards learning the English language.The study investigated students’ motivation in terms of three motivational constructs:instrumental motivation, integrative motivation and personal motivation based onGardner’s (1985) and Cooper and Fishman’s (1977) works. Learners’ attitudes, on theother hand, regarding 1) the use of English in the Yemeni social context, 2) the use ofEnglish in the Yemeni educational context, 3) the English language and 4) the culture ofthe English speaking world were identified. The study sample consisted of 81 petroleumengineering students at Hadhramout University of Sciences and Technology (HUST). Aquestionnaire and interviews were used for data collection. For the students’ motivation,the findings showed the subjects’ greater support of instrumental reasons for learning theEnglish language including utilitarian and academic reasons. Personal reasons were alsoregarded as important motives by the students. However, regarding the integrativereasons, the results provided evidence that learning English as a part of the culture of itspeople had the least impact in students’ English language motivation. On the other hand,data for the students’ attitudes revealed that most of students had positive attitudestowards the social value and educational status of English. In addition, the findingsshowed the students’ positive orientation toward the English language. Interestinglyenough, the results indicated that a high number of the students showed their interest inthe culture of the English speaking world as represented by English-language films.Finally, some pedagogical implications that would help tap the students’ motivation andattitudes were presented.