Motivational Orientations and Self-determination Theory in Learning Arabic as a Second Language

This study examined Arabic learners' motivation towards learning Arabic at the Academy of Islamic Studies, Nilam Puri, University Malaya. A total of 265 first and second year students, comprising of 99 males and 166 females, were randomly selected. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to categorize the questionnaire into latent factors. The analysis yielded six interpretable factors with eigenvalues greater than one, which accounted for 55.1% of proportion variance in Students' Motivation of Language Learning scores (SMLA). Regression analysis examined the direction, weight, and predictive ability for each predictor extracted from the PCA. The overall model was statistically significant, [F (7,229) = 20.10, MSE = 31.02, p=.001], and the set of the predictors accounted for 56% of the total variance explained by the model. Religious motivation, introjected regulation, and external regulation were found to be significantly correlated with intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, demotivation, motivation, gender, and age were found to be statistically insignificant. In conclusion, the study found that religious motivation was the main determinant in learning Arabic, although other factors such as introjected regulation and external regulation were also found to be significant factors.