Learner motivation in self-access language learning

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of a study looking at students’ motivation to engage in Self-Access Language Learning (SALL) while taking an English for Academic Purposes course which contains a substantial integrated SALL component. To-date there has been limited research into the motivation of such students but it is an important area of research because the extent to which students will make use of and benefit from SALL is likely to be strongly influenced by the type of motivation they experience. Using the framework of the L2 Motivational Self System created by (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009) and data from a questionnaire survey and interviews, this paper categorises the kinds of motivation seen among the students and then discusses the relevance of the findings for promoting and supporting the use of SALL among these and similar students.