Motivating English Grammar Learning For Iraqi High Schools

Abstract

The present study intended to investigate developing and validating a motivation to learn English grammar scale and examining its relation to Iraqi high school EFL learners' grammatical ability. 100 EFL female learners participated to respond the questionnaire in this study. They were around 18-19 years old and were selected randomly from Wasit high school in Kut. To ensure the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, factor analysis was run and Chronbach alpha test was used regarding the reliability. A Pearson Moment Correlation formula was used to see if there was any relationship between the students' motivation and their grammar knowledge in English language. This study confirmed the validity of the questionnaire structure; a confirmatory factor analysis method was used based on the structural equation modeling with Liserel software. The value of t in all cases was greater than 1.96 or less than 1.96 that showed the model was verified and acceptable. The Cronbach's alpha for the questionnaire was more than 0.7. Therefore, the reliability of the questionnaire could be confirmed. The study showed there was a positive and significant relationship between motivation and learners' grammatical ability.