Students’ Motivation in Learning English among SMAS Frater Don Bosco, SMK 2 Tarakan, and MTS Negeri Tarakan

Abstract

Although motivation is a well debated notion, it is nevertheless difficult to describe. It is seen as an essential component for carrying out particular tasks and succeeding. Motivation is the driving force and catalyst for putting up the best effort possible on a variety of tasks, especially when learning a foreign language. Students who are driven to learn English are more likely to put in their best effort and use all available resources to become proficient. Examining students' motivation to learn English at three distinct Tarakan schools—SMK 2 Tarakan, SMAS Frater Don Bosco, and MTS Negeri Tarakan—was the aim of this study. 60 participants from these schools answered a ten-item questionnaire utilized in this descriptive qualitative study. The results showed that pupils in all three schools were more motivated by intrinsic factors (mean = 4.16) than by extrinsic factors (mean = 2.23). This shows that rather than being influenced by outside forces, pupils are more driven to study English for personal reasons.