Attitude and motivation towards English learning in students of a normal rural school

This research explores the motivation and attitude that sixth semester students of the bachelor degree in elementary education of a rural normal school have towards English learning, using the Attitude and Motivation Test of Gardner (1985), sociodemographic interviews and focal groups to complement the information. This is a quantitative study with an experimental design that works with a probabilistic cluster sample. The results are shown by contrasting different demographic variables, such as state of origin, affiliation to an indigenous group and educational level where they first started to learn English, with attitude and motivation related aspects towards English learning and the English-speaking community. It concludes highlighting the social aspect of attitudes and how beliefs and previous experiences influence this variable, as well as the importance of the first academic contact with the foreign language towards developing the interest and wish to acquire it.