Development of Models for the Motivating and Demotivating Factors to Learn English among Iranian Azerbaijani and Kurdish EFL Learners

This study explores the motivating and demotivating factors among Kurdish and Azerbaijani EFL freshmen students in Iranian Kurdistan and Azerbaijan universities. The motive behind extracting motivating and demotivating factors was discovering the causes of their failure in English learning and offering solutions. Collecting qualitative data was in accord with grounded theory, a three-session semi-structured interview running with 18 interviewees and a focus group with six from each university separately to brainstorm their ideas. The researchers then transcribed and codified the data according to Corbin and Strauss’s (2015) systematic steps of open, axial, and selective coding. For validation, one of the researchers interviewed the same number of students in Payameh Noor universities of Mahabad (with Kurdish students) and Miyandoab (Azerbaijanic students). Subsequently, in line with the body of literature and the data, six joint demotivating factors and 30 categories were obtained for both ethnic groups. In addition, seven motivational factors together with 29 categories were discovered, out of which three were related to Azerbaijani students leading to an integrative type of motivation, and four for Kurdish students making instrumental motivation. The proposed models are helpful for policymakers of education and those who care about better English instruction.