STUDENTS' PERSPECTIVES ON MOTIVATION TO LEARN ENGLISH Nihta V. F. Liando1 Abstract: Improving learning outcomes has always been the target of the foreign language learning practices. The central role of students in the learning process had attracted researchers to conduct research in order to increase students' success in learning. Student motivation is considered one of the factors contributing to students' success in learning aforeign language. Although there is a large body of research on motivation in secondlforeign language learning, most studies were undertaken in Western contexts. There is still only a relatively small amount of research on motivation in second/foreign language learning in Asian contexts, particularly in the Indonesian context. This study investigated the motivational factors that influence first year university students' performance studying English as a foreign language I Nihta V.F. Liando, M.A., Ph.D. at+6281356606617 is currently a lecturer at the English Deparbnent and the Head of Language Centre, Manado State University (UNlMA), Indonesia. She is also teaching at the Postgraduate Program at UNlMA where she serves as the Secretary of the Master of Indonesian Language Education Program. She completed her PhD at the School of Education, the University of Queensland and obtained her MA degree by Research at the University of Adelaide. She was the recipient of Fulbright Scholarship Teacher Summer Institute in Amherst, Massachusetts in 2003. She has presented in various national and international conferences. Her interests are in the field of TEFL, motivation, language planning, and sociolinguistics. 166 Celt, Volume 9, Number 2, December 2009: 150-169 accommodates activities in and out the classroom in order to stimulate students' motivation to learn English. These findings supported as well as extended many previous research studies in motivation and second language learning (Gardner 1990, 1991; Gardner and Clement 1990; Gardner and Lysynchuk 1990; Gardner and Tremblay, 1994; Gardner, Tremblay, and Masgoret 1997) as the findings strengthened the information related to the role of motivation in second language learning. These findings also showed a significant correlation between motivation and academic achievement which made motivation a more substantial factor to successful English language learning. REFERENCES Abu-Rabia, S. "Gender differences in Arab students' attitudes toward Canadian society and second language learning". In The Journal of Social Psychology. Vol. 137, No.1, 1997: 125-128. Bacon, S. M. and M.D. Finneman."A study of the attitudes, motives, and strategies of university foreign-language students and their disposition to authentic oral and written input". In The Modem Language Journal. Vol. 74 No.4, 1990: 459-473. 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