The Impact of Motivation on English Language Acquisition among Medical and Dentistry Students at Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences

Motivation is an important aspect of language acquisition. Researchers have classified motivation into two types of integrative and instrumental. Based on the importance of these two kinds of motivations, this study has been devised to determine the motivations of medical and dentistry students of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences on language learning.

In this cross- descriptive study, 200 students of the dentistry and medical schools were chosen by random sampling in 2009. The data gathering method was the integrative and instrumental motivation scale of Gardner. The data were then analyzed using t test.

Out of the participants; 35.5% were dentistry and 64.5% were medical students: 44.8% were male, and 55.2% were female. The mean of the total points of the integrative motivation was 3.83, while the mean of the instrumental motivation was 4.21. Results indicated that the students had a high motivation and positive attitudes towards learning English. There was no statistical difference between the two types of motivations.

This study indicated that there is a high motivation among the medical and dentistry students of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences in learning English. Their motivation had also increased since the highschool period, therfore Students should be encouraged to become more motivated inorder to learn the English language fluently.