L2 Motivational Self System and Perceived Academic Competence: The Case of a Moroccan English Department

The present study had a two-fold objective. On the one hand, it purported to explore Moroccan English Department students’ L2 Motivational Self System--viz: the ideal L2 self, the ought-to L2 self and the L2 learning experience, in line with Dörnyei (2005, 2009) and later works. On the other hand, it sought to uncover relationship, if any, between the foregoing motivational variables and the students’ perceived academic competence (Eccles & Wigfiels, 2002). The study, thus, hypothesized that a) the variables under study exhibit the same weight in the respondents’ motivational behavior and that b) these variables have a bearing on students’ perceived academic competence. A 19-item questionnaire was distributed to 56 students at Mohammed V University, Morocco. The items were scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. The results indicated a strong ideal L2 self among the respondents, as against a weaker L2 learning experience and an even weaker ought-to L2 self. The ideal L2 self was also shown to shape these respondents’ perceived academic competence