Young learners' attitudes and motivation towards learning English in terms of Dörnyei's theory of motivation

The purpose of this study was to identify the young learners` attitudes and motivation towards learning English via Dornyei`s motivational self-system. This study was carried out in a private school in Gaziemir, İzmir with 45 primary school 2nd grade students. English has been taught as a primary school subject. For qualitative data gathering; Interview schedules and Observation Checklist were developed by the advisor and the researcher of this study. It was adopted from Dörnyei and Csizer (2006) and from a questionnaire by Ryan (2005). The questionnaire was translated by the researcher into Turkish in order to avoid misinterpretations. The results revealed that positive learning environment and activities were significant factors in determining young learnes' attitudes and motivation to learn English. The students' attitudes were mainly positive towards learning English and they had intrinsic motivation to learn English.