Construction of a Motivational Self-System Instrument for the Learning of Persian as a L2

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to develop a motivational Self-System instrument for learning Persian language as a second language (L2) with an acceptable validity and reliability. To do so, first of all, based on existing literature especially Zoltán Dörnyei's works and also qualitative methods, a six-factor Persian questionnaire was prepared which comprised: L2 Ideal self, L2 Ought-to self, L2 Learning experience ,L2 self-efficacy, International posture & L2 learning experience items. The population of the study consisted of foreign students of Imam Khomeini International University, Persian learning faculty of the 2015-16, second semester (N=100). The sampling method was done through a census survey and sample size was (n=73).The reliability of the questionnaire items were measured in terms of Cronbach's alpha & bisection method. A descriptive research design, was used with Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for construct validity, as well as experts' input for face validity and content validity ratio (CVR) for content validity. The results from the 73 participants demonstrated that all items had an acceptable factor loading except in International posture in item no.27 which was removed from the questionnaire. The Cronbach's alpha for the questionnaire was 0.947. The estimated significance levels were more than 0.05 for each item which demonstrated the normality of all the study variables. It can be concluded that the Persian researcher-developed questionnaire on motivational self-system has both acceptable variability and reliability