Investigating ESL pre-university students’ perceptions on motivation and burnout: a correlational study / Doreen Dillah … [et al.]

Motivation acts as a force for students that maintains learning. Educators must emphasise the need to help nurture students’ motivation, as it is believed that motivation can make students more resilient and less likely to experience burnout during their studies. Since motivation is indeed one of the crucial factors in determining students’ success in learning, thus this quantitative study was conducted to explore Pre-University students’ perceptions of motivation, burnout, and the correlation between these two elements. A survey questionnaire, consisting of eight sections with 40 items, was distributed to 227 students at a selected Foundation Centre in Malaysia. Findings revealed that extrinsic motivation and self-efficacy are the main factors that motivate students to learn more. Although the majority of the students possess high motivation in learning, they do experience burnout. Even though there is no strong correlation between motivation and burnout, this study helps both students and educators to determine the factors motivating students to learn and the causes of burnout among them.