Bildiri: Investigating Students’ Motivation and Challenges in Learning English / İngilizce Öğrenmede Öğrencilerin Motivasyonu ve Karşılaştıkları Zorlukların İncelenmesi

Özet

Motivation is crucial in learning a foreign language, but learners often face problems that affect their progress. This exploratory study looks at what motivates university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students to learn English and what difficulties they experience. The study focused on five students chosen on purpose. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews from five learners with nine open-ended questions. The interviews were recorded, written down, and analyzed to find main themes. The results showed learners’ opinions on themes including motivation, confidence in speaking, learning problems, learning outside the classroom, and conversation clubs. The study found that students are motivated by practical reasons, such as future jobs, academic success, and global communication/travelling, but interest in culture and talking with international people also motivates them. Speaking English was the hardest skill because of anxiety, fear of mistakes, pronunciation issues, limited vocabulary, and few chances to practice. Using English less outside the classroom made these problems bigger. Teacher support and effective teaching methods helped students feel more motivated and confident. Students also thought conversation clubs could help them feel less nervous and speak more fluently. Overall, the study shows that even though students are motivated, emotional challenges and limited real-life English practice slow their progress, showing the need for supportive and interactive learning environments.

Beydanur BİNGÖLLÜ, Gökçen Zeynep DİŞBUDAK, Sude GENÇER, Yaren TEMBİK, Doç. Dr. Nihan ERDEMİR