A study of the relationship between English listening comprehension and student motivation

The problem. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the dynamics of college students' motivational patterns as identified by the Motivation Analysis Test (MAT), to test their achievement in English listening comprehension, and to find out whether there was significant relationship between the dynamics of learners' motivation and their achievement in language learning.; Procedures. The sample subjects were 146 college juniors. At the beginning of the semester, the sample subjects were given two tests: TOEFL and MAT. After the TOEFL and the MAT, all students in the sample were given regular English lessons for one semester. At the end of the semester all these students were given a posttest on English listening comprehension ability using the same TOEFL.; Findings. There was a difference at.05 level of significance between the MAT Total Motivational Score patterns in the sample of three junior groups. The difference between the pretest and the posttest on the TOEFL English listening comprehension ability score and the relationship between the total motivation score of MAT and the TOEFL English listening comprehension ability score was significant at the.05 level.; Conclusions. Certain motivation variables were more dominant in a particular department than in others. Teaching effectiveness was supported and a positive correlation between English listening comprehension and student motivation was found.; Recommendations. The findings should encourage language teachers to take certain motivation variables into account in determining the best methods for motivating students when teaching English listening comprehension skills.