Motivation In an Indonesian EFL Context: Individual Attributes, Social Cultural Background, and Teachers Behaviours

The four aims of this research were: 1) to investigate the similarities and / or differences in motivational factors that influence high school and university students performance when studying English as a foreign language (EFL) in an Indonesian context; 2) to explore the socio-cultural factors which influence students as they learn English as a foreign language; 3) to examine the relationships between teachers behaviours and students academic performance, and 4) to expand the contextual framework for understanding motivation in foreign language learning to include Indonesia. Based on the literature review, a contextual framework for research into motivation and language learning was proposed that suggested that three key areas influenced the success of second or foreign language learning individual attributes, social cultural background and teachers behaviours. A pilot study based on interviews with teachers and students, was used to test whether the framework was applicable in the Indonesian context. The findings of this pilot study supported the validity of the three key areas proposed in the framework as the basis for a broader scale study. The participants in this study were 126 first year students and 28 lecturers in an English department at a state university, as well as 149 third year students and 21 English teachers in a government and a private high school. Questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews were employed to collect data in this study. Questionnaires with ten scales were used in this study: Integrative Orientation, Instrumental Orientation, Motivational Intensity, Attitudes toward Learning English, Social Orientation, Parental Encouragement, Family Influence, Outstanding Teachers Characteristics, Nonverbal Teacher Immediacy Behaviours, and Verbal Teacher Immediacy Behaviours. Classroom observation and selective interviews were also employed. A range of statistical and qualitative analysis techniques were applied to analyse the data. The results of the study indicate that despite differences in motivational factors among three groups (university and two high schools), the groups shared the same predictive variable for student academic performance teachers behaviours, although attitudes toward learning English was also found to be important for the two high schools. The different educational contexts also produced variation in motivation. The results showed that high school students were more integrative and instrumental than university students who had a stronger intensity of motivation and more positive attitudes toward learning English. The results of discriminant function analysis indicated that the best variables for distinguishing between the high schools and the university group were attitudes toward learning English and integrative motivation, while the motivational factors for differentiation between the two high school groups were instrumental motivation and teachers verbal immediacy behaviours. The implications for future research included: broadening the research to other contexts, the need to examine other levels of school context, the need to study the relationships between motivation and other constructs such as other individual differences, and the requirement to more fully understand students learning strategies and related teaching approaches to better model the complexity of the EFL learning process. Finally the study has revealed the importance of developing an understanding of the role of local context, as in foreign language learning culture plays an important role in learner success