Influence Factors in Students’ Motivation for Communicative Competence in English: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The study intends to examine how motivation influences Saudi students’ communicative competence in English as a foreign language. A questionnaire blending select items from Gardner’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) and various other motivational strategies was prepared and administered on two groups of students from different colleges and on EFL teachers at Jazan University, Saudi Arabia. Based on an extensive review of the concurrent research and literature, this work tries to define and discuss the concept of communicative competence and how motivation is affected by several factors - students’ integrativeness, students’ attitudes toward their teacher and course, and motivational intensity. Factors including teachers’ communicative style, teaching strategies supporting motivation, curriculum, course material and class activities also affect directly students’ motivation and communicative competence. Based on the research results, the article provides a basis for discussion and research into the use of the blended and collaborative learning learner-centered approach and assimilation of motivational strategies by EFL teachers to develop and improve learners’ communicative competence that eventually opens boulevards for future research in the related fields.

Keywords: Communicative competence, motivation, teaching strategies