PROCESOS ELECTROQUÍMICOS DE MAQUINADO

The second question, “Why are you learning English? What are your motivations?” was designed to investigate students’ beliefs and motivations. As explained in Chapters Three and Four, these variables are important factors in FLA, and they may have a significant influence on foreign language learners as will be shown in Chapter Seven. Responses of the men to this question were all similar. They all said they believed that English is the international language and should be learned. In addition, all responses showed that all men students had a similar motivation; to gain jobs, for example, M2 stated, “because I

like it, it is the international language. And learning English here in Libya offers you a good job especially in oil companies”. And M3 responded, “because I believe that English is language number one in the world, besides, it is a very interesting language to learn and I‘d like to learn it for the future, I mean I’ll get a job if I learn it”. M11 said, “because I like learning languages in general and English specifically and as you know when you have an English language university certificate, you have a good chance to get a good job in Libya”. M10 showed his source of belief motivation, saying: Because I love it, and when I was young my father encouraged me to learn English, he taught me some words. Besides, I like watching English movies like Opera and Doctors, I like the way they speak. So I think I made a good decision when I chose to study English, and it will be easy to have a job when I graduate”.

Similarities and differences between women’s motivations emerged from responses. Some women seemed to have intrinsic motivation for learning English, for instance, W2

answered, “I like to learn other languages besides Arabic because I like to communicate

with foreigners, and I like to understand what people who speak English in TV talk about”.

W3 also said, “I was keen to learn English because I like English culture so much, I

wanted to know more about their lives, habits, and I like to watch English movies”.

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I always have a dream that I could speak English fluently. I faced some situations where I hoped I could interact with foreign people well. I hope to travel to Britain or any country where people speak English to learn the language by communication.

These examples suggest that some women participants had internal motivation with the purpose to learn for communication with foreigners and native speakers of English. In addition, these extracts reveal that some students have a curiosity to learn about the English culture (referred to in Chapter Four). Similar motivations were expressed by W7, W1, and W4’s. W7, for instance, said:

I like English so much. Besides, it is the international language, and all the instructions of any type of technology are written in English so everyone should learn English to get on with this life. Moreover, it was my father’s decision to study English to get a job in a company or a school. And I hope to carry on in high level study to get an MA in English, then a PhD. At that time I will easily get a good job in any university because all fields study general English. If I achieved this, I would be respected by people.

Besides the internal motivation, these responses indicated that some women participants had external motivation including the support of their parents and teachers who encouraged them to learn English in order to get jobs. W7, for example, seems to be aware of the importance of English in everyday life. Moreover, she pointed out the respect Libyan society has for educated people. In addition, students generally seem aware of the fact that having English language qualifications meant they could get good jobs in an oil country like Libya in which there are many European companies. So, the students’ positive attitude towards English and Libya as an oil country, as I explained in Chapters Two and Four, seems to be a motivation to learn English. On the other hand, two participants (W4 and W9) stated that studying English was not their choice, W4, for example, reported:

I‘m learning English because my father convinced me to learn it. He hadn’t learnt it from school but by communication with foreigner workers in a company. My father died while I was in secondary school. I’m struggling learning English now because I knew from the beginning that English was difficult for me, but it was my father’s will was for me to continue. I cannot let him down.

In addition, W9 clearly stated, “In fact it was not my choice to learn English but my

parents forced me to do it”. W4 was likely unwilling to study English because it seems that

she had a belief that English was a difficult subject for her although her father had convinced her of its importance. Both participants are possibly not motivated to learn English and, as many researchers have suggested, finding out the reasons for a lack of motivation is important. I suggest that this may be helped by taking affective factors into account. If students have low self-confidence or self-esteem, high anxiety and inhibition, their levels of motivation may be diminished. Moreover, teachers’ negative attitudes

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towards students and non-supportive classroom environments can diminish students’ willingness to take part in lesson. A lack of positive reinforcement, approval and

appreciation of students by teachers can influence motivation to learn in negative ways. Another different motivation surfaced in the comment of W11 which showed that thoughts can generate emotions and influence motivation. Because W11 thought that her aunt was an ideal, she admired her and tried to be like her. In keeping with Ben-Ze’ev’s (2001) points about the importance of social comparison section (Chapter Three), W11 reported:

Actually when I was a child I was influenced by my aunt who was an English language student. I liked the look of her desk - full of English books and dictionaries in her room. I admired her when she spoke English. When I grew up a little I asked her to teach me English, and she really did, and I liked it so much. My motivation at that time was to be like her. Later when I enrolled at the university I chose to study English because I’m interested in English grammar and I enjoy learning English vocabulary and reading passages.

It seems that W11 had internal motivation which had been generated by the influence of social comparison, and external motivation from the support and encouragement of an ‘ideal’ person. In addition, W11 also seems confident of her decision, possibly made on her own, to study English due to her positive earlier experiences which may have worked as a good positive motivation. So motivation does seem connected to self-confidence and both variables seem to be connected to types of anxieties as I will discuss now.

6.3.3 Types of anxieties (trait, state, situational), and self-