2.5 Relevant research
Hedge (2000) conducted a study that investigated the motivation of 20 Japanese students who were studying English. The findings indicated that the most common reasons for studying English as a second language were for communication with people overseas, finding employment in a high profile career, processing international information, and understanding other cultures. These findings were related with the work of Gardner and Lambert (1972) which suggested that a person’s need for studying a second language is for the ability to socialize with the learning language community or integrative motivation and the ability to gain knowledge applied from that learning language or instrumental motivation.
Siriluck Wechsumangkalo and Sirithip Prasertrattanadecho (2004) conducted a study which indicated clearly that high English proficiency subjects are more integratively motivated than low English proficiency subjects. However, there was no significant difference in the level of instrumental motivation between two groups of subjects. Moreover, the study showed that high English proficiency subjects are more motivated than low English proficiency subjects with low English achievement.