Investigating the Role of Intrinsic Motivation in Promoting EFL Learners’ Speaking Skill.

Abstract

Mastering the speaking skill is undoubtedly the lead objective for most students of English as a foreign language. This is due to the fact that displaying remarkable speech proficiency constitutes the dominant criterion for measuring the overall success and efficiency of their course of learning. Looking at all possible factors that may either hinder or add up to learners’ successful development of this critical productive skill preoccupies most researchers in the field of Second or Foreign Language acquisition. The purpose of this research work was to establish explicit evidence that there is a thought-provoking relationship between intrinsic motivation and the speaking competence. Moreover, it sought to set concrete proofs of how the former enhances the latter. This study has been conducted using two main research tools: an online questionnaire administered to a sample of 120 Master students at Ibn Khaldoun University, Tiaret and an interview conducted with a number of 5 top Master 2 English students within the same setting. Our findings reveal that there is a sound causal interrelation between learners’ intrinsic motivation and their speaking proficiency. As an overall insight reached through the present research work, an elevated level of intrinsic motivation can potentially lead to better and stellar speaking proficiency in the target language.