Keywords

1 Introduction

The pivotal role motivation plays in second language learning has led to recent second language scholarship to reconsider the concept as being complex and involving a number of facets (Dörnyei, 2005), thereby departing from the “reductionist” and psychometrically based models that marked motivational theorizing since the early 60s. (Gardener & Lambert, 1959, 1972; Gardner & Tremblay, 1994). This alternative move construes motivation as contextually relevant, and therefore open to change (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009). Scholars impute this shift to a reflection of the new world order today in which people and cultures tend to go global, and to the consequent spectacular ascendency of English as a world language. Concomitant with this are the claims in the recent applied linguistics literature that the “native speaker” has been demoted from his classical status as the “uncrowned king” of linguistics (Firth & Wagner, 1997) to one that is “equally handicapped” to the non-native speaker (op.cit). One corollary to this has been a redefinition of notions like the “target language community,” which has no doubt had implications for what it is that drives learners to choose to study English and invest effort in hopes of its mastery.

In Morocco, a series of educational reforms have, among other things, sought to reposition learners as the center of pedagogical activity, obviating the need for insight into motivation in light of this new learner status. Indeed, since 2000, the educational reform known as the Charter for Education and Training, Royal speeches, Ministerial Notes, and, recently, the 2015–2030 Strategic Vision, have expressed an urge for education to work toward producing “global” citizens. Part of going global according to these texts, relates to the mastery of languages. In this connection, apart from the urge to preserve local languages and cultures which have carved comfortable space in English textbooks, there have been more urgent calls for the promotion of English, especially among higher education learners. In fact, Lahcen Daoudi, a former minister of education, expressly set the “mastery of English” as a precondition for passing a recruitment interview for the position of a teacher in a higher education institution, despite the candidate’s doctoral work being conducted in other languages. This, together with English now becoming more popular in Morocco than ever before, invites empirical endeavors to offer insights into how this learning takes place and how it can be improved. Central to these concerns is consideration of language learning motivation.

With this background in mind, the overarching aim of the present chapter is to explore the motivational profile of Moroccan English Department students at the Faculty of Humanities in Rabat. From this aim bifurcate two specific objectives which can be articulated as follows:

  1. 1.

    To test (whether and) how the variables of Ought-to Self, attitude toward learning, and cultural interest impact English Department students’ intended effort.

  2. 2.

    To compare “employee” learners and their “non-employee” counterparts on each of the variables above.

Conducting a study on motivation at the English Department finds rationale in a number of facts. First, to the extent of the researcher’s knowledge, only scarcely has motivation among Moroccan EFL been addressed, aside from such scant attempts as Zeddari (2003). In this, the present study comes to fill a gap. Second, the Motivational Self System as a theory that has gained worldwide acclaim and would therefore be of relevance to test against data from Moroccan learners. Third, in homage to the first English Department in the country, the need arises to celebrate its comparatively long history in seeking to render its learners’ motivational and learning behavior.

The present chapter is organized as follows: In Sect. 7.1, this section, the context of the study both at the local and at the global levels are discussed as an introduction to the main point of the article. In Sect. 7.2, a number of facts in regard to the spread of English in Morocco, both inside and outside the English department will be presented. Section 7.3, exposes a number of facts concerning the linguistic landscape of Morocco. Then, a number of studies which have directly dealt with the components of motivation in relation to L2 learning will be discussed in Sect. 7.4. In Sect. 7.5, the method followed in data collection and analysis will be briefly presented. In Sect. 7.6 the results are exposed and discussed. Then the chapter concludes.

2 English Inside and Outside the Department

The student population at a typical English Department in Morocco is growing year after year since its inauguration in 1964, a growth that has become phenomenal over the last few years. At Mohammed V University, for example, the number has grown to 1800 in 2016 had grown even higher by 2019 with the introduction of the track known as the “Educational Track.” This is not the case of Mohammed V University only, for colleagues from other English Departments report the same remarkable growth and often express concerns about the larger class size, on which many stakeholders in public education blame the general dissatisfaction with students’ overall attainment.

Notwithstanding their being hosted at the faculty of arts, Moroccan English Departments attract students from different academic backgrounds: humanities, sciences, economics, to name just a few. Many of these students demonstrate notable abilities in Spoken English as they start their first semester, but only rarely do they show similar fluency and accuracy in written communication. This issue is worthy of an independent investigation and so will not be pursued in the present study.

Outside of these Departments, there is a growing interest in the study of English among the population, which explains the number of private schools mushrooming nationwide which offer courses in foreign languages in general and in English in particular. As a case in point, there are public institutions, such as the Ministry of Public Finance, that offer training sessions for their staff in General English, as part of their staff training programs. The increasing number of individuals paying for such courses, too, has been remarkable around the country. Buckner (2011) imputes this attention-grabbing interest to the Moroccans envisioning English as a “language of opportunity and future” in rejection of French as a colonial language. In the same vein, an article in the electronic magazine, “Morocco World News” (July 5, 2015), reports on a call by the Rabat Center for Political and Strategic studies for the replacement of French in the country. In 2015, a survey conducted by Hespress, a leading news website, 85% of the population is in favor of this replacement (Morocco World News, July 5, 2015).

The emergence of the internet toward the turn of the century and the ensuing social media platforms are further levers for the spread of English in a country like Morocco. More than ever before, thanks to social media, Moroccans’ access to authentic language input, opportunities for real-time interactions, autonomous learning, and feedback—key ingredients in a language learning experience—is now both qualitatively and quantitatively guaranteed. A similar effect is produced by the accessibility of people to such TV channels broadcasting in English as MBC2, BBC, and CNN. This shows that the presence of English in Morocco is a fact that cannot go unnoticed. Many Moroccans are consequently able to learn English outside of the classroom. It is no wonder that one can even come across young inhabitants of mountainous areas who speak English with remarkable fluency simply as a result of their interactions with tourists.

The facts above are revealing a change in the motivational behavior of the Moroccan EFL learner. Unlike his 1980s or 1990s predecessor, for example, the latter is likely to set different goals to his learning, adopt different means of learning, hold different attitudes toward the language itself, and expect different learning outcomes. The motivational framework that is best equipped to account for these changes is Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self on the grounds of the wide credit it continues to receive among researchers in the field. This will be discussed in the next section. In order to situate the framework in its theoretical perspective, however, a review of different traditions of research on L2 motivation is in order.

3 The Moroccan Linguistic Situation

This section is a brief description of the linguistic situation in Morocco. The aim behind including this section is to highlight the fact that the Moroccans have a number of languages available for learning. Deciding in which language to invest will depend on a number of complex factors, including the status of the chosen language. However, this very issue will not be pursued here any further.

The Moroccan linguistic situation is both complex and diverse. This is partially due to the well-known fact that, historically, the country has been subject to so many foreign invasions, with all the complexities in language and communication these invasions bring with them. Indeed, like many North African countries, Morocco was subject to invasions from the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Arabs, and, more recently, the Europeans. In consequence, the country is a site for the study of how this complex linguistic heritage is made use of in the course of day-to-day language activities. In the following paragraphs, the main aspects of the Moroccan linguistic situation will be given.

In Moroccan linguistic market, one can draw a distinction between two categories: languages with a weak social capital and those with a strong social capital. The languages that are associated with a weak social capital are Moroccan Arabic and Amazigh, which are basically oral languages and are used in daily conversations among Moroccans. On the other hand, the languages that are associated with strong social capital are Standard Arabic and French, which are used in formal contexts (Boukous, 2009).

The first known language in Morocco is Amazigh, otherwise known also as Berber. For centuries, this language had lost its written form until it was revived in 2001, with the foundation of the Royal Institute for the Amazigh Culture. There are three main varieties of Amazigh in Morocco, apart from the newly standardized variety taught at school. Tarifit is spoken in the north of the country, while Tamazight is spoken in the area known as the Middle Atlas. Tashlhit is a variety that is spoken in the south, around the cities of Agadir, Taroudant, and Guelmim. Although the three varieties are hardly intelligible as one moves from one to another, this lack of intelligibility is due primarily to phonological differences, many of which are systematic.

Moroccan Arabic, also known as Darija, is the variety spoken natively by many Moroccans. It is a variety that functions as a lingua franca for all Moroccans, since it is the one spoken in such big cities as Rabat, Casablanca, and Marrakech. Aside from the structural features of Standard Arabic which it displays, Moroccan Arabic exhibits so many examples of Amazigh, French, and Spanish structures and lexical items. Further south of the country, there is a Moroccan Arabic variety different from Darija. This is referred to as Hassania and it bears little phonological and structural resemblance to Moroccan Arabic, although it, too, includes words of an Amazigh origin.

There exist a number of foreign languages in Morocco. Apart from French and Spanish, two colonial languages, English, German, and Italian, to mention but a few, are also languages to which Moroccan people are attracted. French continues to be used in public and private administrations while Spanish does not enjoy this status. In the recent 2011 constitution, however, it is Standard Arabic and Amazigh that are recognized as official. All in all, Morocco is a multilingual country where a number of languages coexist with their different statuses and functions.

4 The Motivational Self System and Language Learning

The Online Advanced Learner’s Dictionary provides three definitions for the entry of motivation. As a first definition, the term refers to “the reason why somebody does something or behaves in a particular way.” The second definition the dictionary gives consists in the “feeling of wanting to do something,” especially something that involves hard work. The third definition is that of “a statement or a piece of writing in which you give reasons for something.” Applied to the language learning process, the first and second definitions could both be involved in accounting for the learners’ justified effort to work on a task as well as the desire he cherishes toward this achievement. Definitions that are theory based will be reviewed in the next section, as a way of situating the L2 Motivational Self System, which will be the object of discussion in the section that follows.

4.1 Traditions in L2 Motivational Research

Motivational scholarship that situates L2 motivational theorizing in its historical perspective (Csizér & Magid, 2014; Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009; Ushioda, 2013) customarily divides its history into three main periods: The social–psychological period, which started in the late 1950s and waned in the early 1990s, the cognitive-situated period, which started from 1990s well into the twenty-first century and the process-oriented approach which continues to be the theoretical repository for current analyses of language learning motivation.

Gardner and Lambert’s work as early as 1959 instigated the research tradition on motivation known as the social–psychological period. The main tenet of Gardner and Lambert was that, in a bilingual context like Canada, motivation was the driving force in learning a second language. Subsequent work along this idea characterized motivation as a composite of three elements: motivational intensity, desire to learn the language, and attitudes toward the acts of language learning (Lambert, 1985). The concept that drew more attention with this framework was the integrative motive, a “motivation to learn a second language because of positive feelings towards the community that speaks the language” (Gardner, 1979, pp. 82–83). Recently, however, the integrative motive was found to be incommensurate with the learning process that takes place in a globalized world.

Despite the significance of Lambert and Gardner’s work over around three decades, the social–psychological tradition included other models that dealt with motivation from the same theoretical standpoint. One of these is known as the “linguistic self-confidence” model (Clément, 1986). The major claim defended this model was that the degree of contact between two ethnic groups and the quality of this contact are strong determinants of L2 acquisition. Giles and Byrne (1982) lay the foundation for the “intergroup model.” According to Giles and Byrne (1982), whose main research question was to determine “who in an ethnic group uses what language variety, when and why” (p. 17), previous frameworks such as Gardner (1979) and Clément (1986) suffer from many “deficiencies” (p. 17) in that they do not take into account the variable of ethnic identification. This model was soon superseded by acculturation theory as articulated in Schumann (1986). According to Schumann, social and psychological distance between the second language learner and the target language community determines the language learners’ success in acquiring the target language.

The cognitive-situated period started in the 1990s with critiques of the social–psychological tradition (Guerrero, 2015) where cognitive aspects of learning were not a variable in language learning motivation. The assumption underlying this model is learners’ and teachers’ needs have primacy over the social context of learning. Crooks and Schmidt (1991) is a first attempt to propose a view of motivation which suggested that learning in the classroom needed a place in motivation studies, for the dominance of a “non-cognitive approach stemming from a tendency to see SL learning as unconscious and therefore difficult to reconcile with motivation” (pp. 482–3). A few years later, Dörnyei (1994) made a three-level proposal for the study of motivation: language, the learner, and the learning context. It was during this period that motivation was envisioned not merely as an outcome of social and psychological factors but also an outcome of the learner’s determinants of success inside the classroom such as the teacher, the curriculum, and the syllabus.

The motivational research tradition that marks the beginning of the century is known as the process-oriented period. Basic to the models marking this period is the idea that motivation is a variable construct, likely to change over time. This makes these models depart in radical respects from the accounts that picture motivation in a linear, reductionist way. As is explained in Dörnyei and Ushioda (2009), studies were needed which portrayed motivation in real time, especially in contexts where language learning may take several years. This line of researching motivation was in fact a forerunner of more recent accounts, especially the ones spearheaded by Dörnyei’s work. In the following section, a review of this model, known as the “L2 motivational self,” is in order.

4.2 The L2 Motivational Self System

The merits of a new theory of motivation that incorporates elements of the self-system as that developed by Dörnyei (2005, 2009) are multiple. In this theory, the concept of motivation is not static as was conceived by Lambert (1985) and Gardner and Lambert (1972). In relying on future self-guides that drive the learning effort, the L2 Motivational Self System approach views the motivation construct as dynamic and changing, depending on the changes in the learner’s future self-guides. In this regard, integrativeness à la Gardner and Lambert (1972) has been shown not to be so tenable in view of the current world changes.

Representing a process-oriented approach to motivation (Guerrero, 2015), the L2 Motivational Self System views learners’ motivation along three dimensions: the ideal L2 self, the ought-to self, and the learning experience. The first two components represent the learner’s self-guides, while the third one represents the learner’s actual course of action. In Dörnyei’s terms, the ideal L2 self is the “L2 specific facet of one’s ideal L2 self” (Dörnyei, 2009, p. 29), which reflects, in a sense, what the learner will end up being and doing in the future. The ought-to self refers to the attributes a learner desires to possess by considering restrictions and responsibilities.

The approach has been validated by a number of previous studies (Al-Shehri, 2009; Lamb, 2007; Taguchi, Magid, & Papi, 2009). Taguchi, Magid, and Papi conducted a comparative motivational study of learners of English in Japan, China, and Iran. The results of the study revealed a positive correlation between the ideal L2 self and integrativeness in the groups compared. However, intended efforts were shown to be impacted by the ideal L2 self rather than by integrative orientation.

Lamb (2007) studied the case of two learners in Indonesia, with the main conclusion that the ideal and ought-to selves are effective factors in L2 learning motivation. A similar study followed by Al-Shehri (2009), which was conducted on Saudi Arabian Students.

5 Method

The method of data collection and analysis will be reviewed. The focus in the following sections will specifically be on instruments and participants. Before that, however, the objectives as well as the hypotheses of the study will be presented first.

5.1 Hypotheses

The main objective of the study was to test (whether and) how the variables of Ought-to Self, attitude toward learning, and cultural interest impact English Department students’ intended effort. The choice of these variables stems from the fact that learners’ investment in their learning might be driven by their aim to satisfy the people around them like parents, elder siblings, and friends or by their attitude toward the English language as a prestigious means of communication in today’s world. Needless to say, the interest that many young Moroccans show toward the Anglo-Saxon culture is evident and is, therefore, likely to incite them to invest more in their learning of English. As a second objective, the study purports to compare “employee” learners and their “non-employee” counterparts on each of the variables above.

Given these objectives, two hypotheses are put to test in this study:

  1. 1.

    Intended effort among “non-employee” learners is determined by their ought-to self, attitude toward learning, and cultural interest.

  2. 2.

    “Employee learners” exhibit a significant difference from their “non-employee” counterparts where Ought-to self, attitude toward learning, and cultural interest are concerned.

5.2 Participants

The number of participants who took part in the present study is 72. These were divided into three groups in conformity with the hypotheses above. The first group of students, 28 in number, joined the university for free, upon obtaining their Baccalaureate Degree. These students were not employed, and were aged between 18 and 22. The second group, also not employees, were 20 S6 (third-year students) who were expected to finish their university studies by the end of that semester. As for the third group, it consists of 24 students who paid for their university studies on the grounds that they were employees. The main reason for choosing S2 and S6 students was to check whether the motivational variables above would change as students’ academic level changes. As for the choice of the “employee” group was motivated by the intention to see if the latter would exhibit the same motivational behavior than the regular, “non-employee” students.

It should be pointed out that the participants took part in this study at will. They were told that the questionnaire was anonymous and that their responses and biographical data would be used for study purposes only.

5.3 Instrument

The relevant data were collected by means of a questionnaire with items representing each of the variables stated above. The questionnaire is inspired by the works of Dörnyei (2005, 2009) and other researchers on L2 motivation. Thus, intended effort, ought-to self, attitude toward learning, and cultural interest were each tested by means of four items, with an alpha coefficient respective Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of (0.74), (0.82), (56), and (70). The items were evaluated following a 5-point Likert scale where the students were asked to assign a 5 to “Strongly agree,” 4 to “agree,” 3 to neutral, 2 to disagree, and 1 to “strongly disagree.” The following are sample items for each of the four variables:

Intended effort: “I work so hard to learn English”

Ought-to self: “My parents believe that I should learn English and pass with a good grade”

attitude toward learning: “I do love it when I am in an English class”

Cultural interest: “I like it when I listen to music in English”

6 Findings and Discussion

That motivation has a bearing on students’ learning is an established fact in the literature. However, in light of the shift in the conceptualization of motivation as a monolithic construct (Lambert), and considering the complex resources students have at their disposal nowadays in the course of their learning, determining the components of motivation that may have a significant impact on the act of learning among students remains the object of continuous research today. In this section, we will present the results of our study, which tested the variables of ought-to self, attitude toward learning, and cultural interest and their impact, if any, on students’ intended effort.

Regression was run in order to analyze the impact of the three independent variables (see above) on the dependent variable of the intended effort. The results are summarized in the Table 7.1.

Table 7.1 Impact of independent variables on intended effort
Full size table

The adjusted R-square value of (0.179) indicates that almost (18%) of the changes in the intended effort displayed by the English Department students who responded to the questionnaire is explained by the variables of ought-to self, attitude toward learning, and cultural interests. Two facts underlie this finding. First, in line with the current literature on motivation, the concept is not shown to be monolithic, as is claimed in the now traditional approach of Gardner (1985), which distinguishes learners into “motivated” and “unmotivated.” This fixity is, of course, no longer tenable as motivation is a dynamic construct, likely to be boosted or thwarted by a number of complex factors. Second, the factors that might influence learners’ intended effort can be both varied and complex, as is shown in the R-square value reported in the table above.

The results above, however, are generally as they only show that the independent variables considered have an impact on the changes in the dependent variable. As such, the adjusted R-square figure of around (18%) does not seem to capture the details of such an impact. In order to provide this detail, the regression model used provides the coefficients of each of these dependent variables. These are presented in Table 7.2.

Table 7.2 Coefficients for each independent variable
Full size table

Among the three independent variables, only attitude toward learning is shown to impact learners’ intended effort with a significance level of (0.00). The remaining two variables, ought-to self and attitude toward learning are not shown to impact intended effort, with a significance level of (0.48) and (0.25), respectively.

This finding lends support to the whole gamut of research on the role of attitude in a successful language learning experience. Indeed, for decades, attitude to language learning has been considered an essential factor in language learning motivation (Gardner, 1979). This explains the significance level of this variable in the regression Table 7.2. The students’ responses, as the table shows, did not show to be significantly influenced by their ought-to self, nor by cultural interest. attitude toward learning, therefore, remains the common denominator among S2, S6, “employee” students, and “non-employee” students.

Having presented and discussed the results relating to which of the motivational variables impacts intended learning among English Department students, we now proceed for a closer look at the data, by considering how each group of students’ intended learning gets influenced by the three independent variables above. In order to do this, the results of the ANOVA test are presented briefly in Table 7.3.

Table 7.3 Post hoc comparisons
Full size table

The groups are shown not to differ in regard to the variables of cultural interest and ought-to self. Concerning the variable of attitude toward learning, it clearly shows that the “employee” and the “non-employee” groups differ significantly, with a p-value of (0.00).

This result can be explained by the fact that many of the “non-employee” learners in the sample joined the English Department for purely instrumental reasons. Many of them hold jobs in the public or in the private sector, and therefore, need a BA Degree for career purposes. Their attitude toward learning accordingly becomes exam-bound. Age might be a factor in this difference, too. Many “employee” students are middle-aged, with a few of them beyond 50 years of age. “Non-employee” students, on the other hand, are mostly around their 20s, their main responsibility being their studies.

The findings stated above have a number of implications. One relates to the learning environment of the student. If the latter lacks in security, s/he is unlikely to make enough effort in his/her learning. Any attempt on the part of the teacher to ward-off anxiety wills, therefore, foster students’ attitude toward their learning. Although ensuring a secure environment is not a novel idea in itself, as it dates back to decades (See, for example, Krashen, 1987), its importance is worth emphasizing in a study that explores the issue of learner motivation. A secure environment requires a number of conditions, the most important one being the approach teachers adopt. Many students report that they abstain from making a further effort because of the approach of the teacher.

As a second implication, a language teacher needs to vary classroom activities in hopes of making students enjoy what they do. Burdensome exercises, for example, are likely to be shunned by students. Activities that tap on the learners’ interests outside of the classroom need to be invoked as much as possible. This way, the learner will find meaningful his learning endeavor and will, therefore, be motivated to invest more in his/her learning.

7 Conclusion

The main aim of the present paper was to explore the English Department students’ motivational behavior. It sought to measure the impact of three independent variables—attitude toward learning, cultural interest, and ought-to self—on these students’ intended effort. Of course, motivation as a complex construct cannot be explored by means of the three variables above, for there are so many other facets of it. This is a suggestion for future researchers in the field to attempt at both enlarging the sample size and invoking other aspects of motivation.

The findings presented in this paper clearly show how attitude toward learning can fuel students’ intended effort. Indeed, of the three variables entered in the regression model, only attitude toward learning is shown to have an impact. Indeed, in general terms, there are problems reported in regard to large class size and in regard to issues relating to logistics in the classroom, but as long as students keep a positive attitude toward what they do, the effort they put into their learning is not affected.

A few limitations can be pointed for the present study. First, the sample comes from Mohammed V University, which leaves other Moroccan universities unrepresented, and it is a recommendation for future research in this area to take this limitation into account. Second, the number of participants could have been higher by including more groups and more participants, although recourse to inferential statistics generally relaxes the requirement for large samples.