Motivation to learn a foreign language in Malaysia
Many nations have addressed the need to produce graduates who are multilingual in the effort to compete in the global society. Malaysia has acknowledged the importance of proficiency in a third language in order to develop human capital that drives the keconomy as well as competes in the internat...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbitan UKM
2009
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2309/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2309/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2309/1/Vol.9_issue2_%285%29.pdf |
| Summary: | Many nations have addressed the need to produce graduates who are multilingual in the
effort to compete in the global society. Malaysia has acknowledged the importance of
proficiency in a third language in order to develop human capital that drives the keconomy
as well as competes in the international arena. This study investigated
Malaysian students’ motivation to learn a foreign language. Triangulation of methods
consisting of survey questionnaire, document analysis and focus group discussion were
employed for data collection. A survey based on a 16-item questionnaire was formulated
and more than 500 students from University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti
Teknologi MARA (UiTM) responded to the survey. Responses to the survey were
subjected to the Rasch and descriptive analyses in order to capture salient features of
students’ responses. The findings of the study indicate that UKM and UiTM students
were extrinsically and intrinsically motivated to learn a foreign language. The results of
the t-test, however, indicate a significant difference in terms of the motivation of students
from the two universities |
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