A self-system perspective on young adolescents' motivation to learn English in urban and rural settings.

This study examined the motivation to learn English of Indonesian junior high school pupils, aged 13-14, in three distinct contexts: a metropolitan city, a provincial town, and a rural district. Utilizing Dörnyei’s (2009) L2 motivational self-system as the theoretical framework, it employed a 50-item questionnaire to sample the views of 527 learners, and a C-test to measure their current proficiency in English. Motivation was found to be similar in strength and character in the two urban settings but significantly different in the rural setting. A positive view of the experience of learning English was the strongest predictor of both motivated learning behaviour and L2 proficiency, whereas the ideal L2 self was only a significant factor among the metropolitan group.