Examining the Relation between the L2 Motivational Self System and Second/Foreign Language Learning: The Case of Iranian Learners of French

The impact of motivation in human activities, especially in L2/FL learning/teaching has always attracted researcher's attention. After revealing the limitations of Gardner's ideas, it was determined, in 90's, that mental representations of language learners have a great effect on their motivational processes.
The L2 motivational system of  Dörnyei, as an integration of Gardner, Higgins, Markus and Nurius's ideas with possible selves concept in psychology is one of the most modern theories for studying the L2/FL motivation; the theoretical model contains 3 main concepts: The Ideal L2 self, The Ought-to L2 self and The Learning Experience. In this paper, the authors study the motivational factors of Dörnyei’s theory in Iranian French learners. A questionnaire was distributed to 160 French learners (University students and institute learners) and was analyzed by SPSS 18 software.The results showed that recognition and enhancement of L2 motivational factors can predict the intended effort. Correlation analyses coefficient revealed that the ideal L2 self-variable has a direct relationship with instrumentality-prevention, instrumentality- promotion and intended effort. Also, there is no significant correlation between the anxiety, Ideal L2 self, and intended effort while there is a direct relation between anxiety and the ought-to-to L2 self-items.