Motivational profiles: a small-scale study

Authors

  • Claudia Soria Sepúlveda Universidad de Chile, Departamento de Lingüística, Capitán Ignacio Carrera Pinto 1025, Ñuñoa, Santiago

Abstract

Motivation has been considered a signifi cant individual variable in the successful acquisition of a foreign language. Much research in this area has focused on identifying the dimensions that constitute motivation such as attitude towards the target language, its speakers and their culture, or the perceived benefit that mastering the target language may provide. Csizér and Dörnyei (2005) proposed a qualitative model that groups these motivational dimensions together into learner profiles by means of an exploratory statistical technique applied to data obtained from a questionnaire. This study attempts to apply Dörnyei and Csizér‘s model to identify motivational profiles of 95 Chilean learners of English as a foreign language. The statistical analysis gave as a result four motivational profi les which were related to such variables as achievement and the professional education programme the students belonged to at the time of the study.

Keywords:

individual differences, L2 motivation, attitudes and selves