L2 motivational self system of Turkish learners of English

This study aims to investigate L2 Motivational Self System of tertiary level Turkish EFL learners in terms of their intended efforts to learn English, ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, family influence, attitudes toward learning English, and ethnocentrism. Furthermore, another objective is to examine the effect of gender and department they study on their motivational variables. This study also specifically aims to investigate whether Dörnyei's (2005, 2009) L2 Motivational Self System fits well with the language learning motivation of Turkish EFL learners at tertiary level. English Learner Questionnaire was administered to Turkish students at preparatory classes. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part was composed of background information about the participants, including their gender, major and ages. The second part consisted of statement-type 69 items measuring the learners' attitudes and motivation concerning English learning. The study was carried out in the School of Foreign Languages at Fırat University in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic years. Data of 158 participants were used for analysis, and the statistical analysis was performed by utilising The Statistical Package for Social Sciences software program 23.0 (SPSS). Descriptive statistics was used to determine and analyse the variables of L2 motivational self-system of the participants. Furthermore, Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) analysis was done in order to find out the relations among the variables of L2MSS. Then independent samples t-test was used to find out the effect of gender and the department the students study on their motivational variables. The results of the study suggest that Turkish tertiary level students have strong ideal L2 self and positive attitudes toward learning English, and they are highly motivated in terms of their intended efforts to learn it. Students' ought-to L2 self and family influence were found to be moderate and they correlated only with each other. It was seen that ought-to L2 self and family influence do not have an effect on the learners' motivated behaviours. As for ethnocentrism, the participants of this study were noticed to be less ethnocentric. Significant differences between genders and departments were established in terms of the students' intended efforts to learn English, ideal L2 self, attitudes toward learning English, and ethnocentrism. However, gender differences and departments the students study were found to have no effect on the students' ought-to L2 self and family influence scores. It was seen that Dörnyei's L2MSS partially fits with the participants in this study because ought-to L2 self component of the system proved to be unrelated to the learners motivated behaviour.