Abstract:
That English language education and university designed English courses need to be changed to
address the learner needs, wants and lacks to meet the requirements of globalization is a
known issue in Sri Lanka, but there is a very little empirical evidence to show the issue. The
identification of learner needs, wants and lacks with relation to English learning motivation at
the university level remains very important for the peace building and nation building process
of Sri Lanka. The failure of addressing learners’ needs and wants (specially among rural youth)
caused for the civil unrest of the country for decades. In fact, this thesis investigates the factors
affecting on the English learning motivation of the Sri Lankan public university youth. This
thesis uses an existing psychological construct of L2 Motivational Self System to investigate the
factors affecting on the English learning motivation of the Sri Lankan science undergraduates.
By utilizing the construct, the study aims to determine the primary factors that affect for the Sri
Lankan science undergraduates’ English learning motivation, to analyse the differences in
terms of factors affecting for L2 learner motivation based on the urban and rural needs and to
evaluate the differences between factors according to war affected and non-war affected
learner backgrounds. This study uses a quantitative approach to arrive at the major aims. Data
were collected from 918 Sri Lankan university students through a questionnaire study. The
two-part questionnaire looked at the motivated learning behaviour, ideal L2 self, ought to L2
self, social goals, mastery goals, performance goals, attitudes toward learning English and
attitudes toward L2 community. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used as the major
analytical tool for the identification of causative relationships between the factors and to
develop the comparative models. The results of the study provided substantial support for the
validity and usefulness of L2 Motivational Self System in the Sri Lanka context. The most
obvious finding to emerge from this study is the strongest contribution of the ideal L2 self in
science undergraduates’ English learning motivation. It was also shown that the ideal L2 self is
the strongest contributory factor of rural and war affected science undergraduates’ motivation
compared the urban and non-war affected science undergraduates’ motivation. The second
major finding was that the significant contribution of social goals to examine the Sri Lankan
science undergraduates’ English learning motivation. In sum up the findings suggest the
personal and contextual factors affecting for the English learning motivation of the Sri Lankan
science undergraduates. These findings have important implications for the Sri Lankan
universities, education policy and L2 motivation theory.
