The Influence of Attitudes, Selves and Culture in Motivating Kurdish Learners to Learn English

Abstract

This study presents an investigation of motivation of Kurdish learners to learn English language. The aim is to examine the influence of selves, attitudes, and culture on learners' instrumental and integrative motivation towards learning English. It also intends to study the way that the selected variables, namely Attitudes towards English language, , Ideal L2 self, Ought to l2 self, Interest in the L2 culture, Interest in the L2 community, Instrumental motivation and Integrative motivation, influence English language learning among the learners in the foreign context of Kurdistan. The study can be considered novel in ways that no previous studies have been attempted to investigate the motivation of Kurdish students so far in relation to the effects of the considered variables on their English language learning. Data for the study was obtained from three language service centres in a large city in Kurdistan Region, and both quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed with a total number of 180 survey participants and a total of 12 interview participants. The questionnaire was designed to explore learners' self-orientations and attitudes towards English and how they are inspiring learners to learn the language. The learners' interest