Adult EFL Learners’ Drives to Improve Their English in Private Language Schools

Year 2021, Volume: 8 Issue: 3, 92 - 102, 25.07.2021

Davood Sourı Ali Merç

Abstract

The present study investigated EFL adult learners' reasons behind learning English in a new setting with a mixed-design research methodology. The subjects of this study were forty adult English language learners, 20 males and 20 females, who were learning English as a foreign language in a private English language school in Istanbul. Necessary data regarding the participants’ reasons for learning English were collected through two instruments: questionnaires and interviews. The data analysis revealed that external factors such as finding a job and personal interests such as the desire to make friends urged and encouraged the participants to enrol in the private English language school to improve their English after a hard day of work or study. The study's findings concluded that both instrumental and integrative motivation played roles in the participants’ drives to study English.

Keywords

Motivation, learners’ needs, Learners’ drives, EFL learners

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