Motivation: An Important Factor in Effective Foreign Language Teaching in Iran

A willingness to learn foreign languages is increasing in Iran and foreign languages institutes are seeking to provide the best strategies of effective teaching. Since motivation is one of affective factors that has a crucial role in effective language teaching, this study aims to investigate whether Iranian foreign language learners are motivated to learn foreign languages, what is the main motivation of Iranian foreign language learners to learn foreign languages in Iranian school settings (public universities and language learning institute) and whether contexts, kind of languages and the gender of foreign language learner influence on the motivation of foreign language learners. This descriptive survey was done on 215 learners who were studying English, French and German languages at Isfahan University and 3 language learning institutes of Isfahan. The data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire including 12 items based on a 5 point Likert scale. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and its reliability was 0.78 with Cronbachs Alpha. The data were analyzed through SPSS software using one sample t-test, two independent sample t-test, ANOVA and Friedman test. The result revealed that Iranian foreign language learners participated in the research were motivated to learn foreign languages, their main motivation to learn foreign languages was immigration or study abroad and contexts, kind of languages and sex had no effect on their motivation. Foreign language teachers by being aware of motivation and its role in effective language teaching can promote foreign language learners' motivation which makes progress in foreign language learning.