INVESTIGATION OF MOTIVATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN EFL PREP-CLASSES: A STUDY OF FACULTY TYPE, HIGH SCHOOL, AND ENGLISH LEARNING DURATION

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the motivational differences of Turkish EFL preparatory class students based on three independent variables: type of faculty, high school graduation background, and number of years of previous English learning experience. The participants were B1-level students (n = 103) from a compulsory English medium language preparatory school at a state university's school of foreign languages. A culturally adapted version of Gardner's (2004) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) measured students' motivational intensity, integrative and instrumental orientation, desire to learn, attitude towards the learning environment, and anxiety toward learning a second language. Demographic data was collected through Google Forms. The data were not normally distributed, so non-parametric tests were carried out with IBM SPSS 25. The Kruskal-Wallis H test indicated that students from Anatolian and Science High Schools of the Engineering and Economics faculties were more motivated than students from other backgrounds. In addition, students with 2-5 years of previous English learning were more motivated than the beginner and long-term learners. The implications of the findings highlighted the importance of background experience in shaping language learning motivation and indicated potential considerations for differentiated pedagogical strategies.