Engineering students’ instrumental motivation and positive attitude towards learning English in a trilingual tertiary setting

Abstract

This exploratory small-scale study focuses on the attitude towards learning English and levels of motivation of 132 engineering students from the University of the Basque Country (Spain). The extent to which they consider themselves competent in three languages (Basque/Spanish/English) is also evaluated. For assessing these variables, a 35-item questionnaire is used. The participants were taking an ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course and were familiar with English as a vehicular language through CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and/or EMI (English Medium Instruction) courses. The results demonstrate that their attitude is positive, and it has improved since 2003, despite certain historical events concerning the minority language (Basque). With regard to motivation, the students show a high level of instrumental orientation but a low level of extrinsicintegrative motivation. Relatively high levels of intrinsic motivation are also observed, not far from extrinsic-instrumental motivation levels. The students’ mother tongue (Basque vs. Spanish vs. Basque/Spanish) does not affect results significantly. Finally, high levels of self-perceived confidence with respect to their command of English are observed