Attitudes, motivation and learning strategies among ESL (English As A Second Language) learners: An investigative study of form four Iban students in three rural secondary schools in the Sri Aman divison, Sarawak / Bromeley Philip … [et al.]

It is not uncommon that Iban students from rural secondary schools fail to demonstrate a reasonably good command of the English language. Factors normally contributing to such learner failure include poor attitudes, low level of motivation, a lack of learning strategy awareness, and a non-stimulating school environment. This study was an attempt to explore those contributory factors with two main aims; firstly, to determine the status of three main learner variables namely, attitudes, motivation and learning strategy awareness among rural Iban students; and secondly, to ascertain a correlation between the three learner variables and a situational variable (school environment) respectively. The attitude variable was gauged using 40-Item Likert-Type Inventory adapted from Gardner and Lambert’s Attitudinal-Motivational Test Battery (AMTB). The motivation variable was measured using 20-Item Likert-Type Inventory, also adapted from AMTB. The learning strategy variable was assessed using Oxford’s (1989) Strategy Inventory of Language Learning, Version 7 (SILL). The situational variable was measured using 20- Item Likert-Type Inventory adapted from AMTB. Three rural secondary schools in the Betong Division were selected for the purpose of this study, which included SM Dato Patinggi Kedit, SM St. Augustine, and SM Saribas. Four sets (4 variables) of 50 questionnaires (50 students in each school) were distributed to each school. Only 85 questionnaires from each set of 150 questionnaires distributed could be selected for data analysis. Our findings revealed that there exist poor level of attitude, low level of motivation, and low level of strategy awareness.