Understanding Motivation to Learn English: A Comparison of Urban and Rural Students at a Saudi Arabian University

Proficiency in English is an important component of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. While upholding Arabic language the Saudi Arabia (SA) government is reform ing the educational system to improve students’ achievements Explicitly stated in the V ision is a clause dedicated to uplifting the educational standards to enable SA to compete with the world on an equal footing. Although there is no explicit plan to improve English instruction, there is increasing need to teach English for competitive innovation and for considering national reform initiatives in an increasingly global world world. The Saudi government has spent billions of dollars offering incentives to international institutions to enter into partnership s with SA universities enabling them to of fer joint programmes in undergraduate and postgraduate studiesstudies. Despite the aspirations of the government, Saudi students English language proficiency remains slower to develop . Some studies in other jurisdictions have attributed the l ack of English proficiency to low motivation. T h is thesis addresses the problem of low motivation in the S A context . It reports on a mixed methods investigation of motivational factors that affect language learning in urban and rural SA contexts ; exploring the potential that rurality is related to motivation .