ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on a qualitative study that examined how the constructs of motivation, culture and self-efficacy may contribute to learning English in the Sudanese context. The participants in the study are five college students majoring in English at a large public university in Sudan. The data was collected using qualitative interviews and was analyzed using a grounded approach to qualitative data analysis techniques. The main findings of the study revealed that the participants’ real-life experiences, their self-efficacy, and culture influenced their motivation to learn English as a foreign language. All the participants viewed the pursuit of higher education and learning English as a crucial way to change their lives and solve many of their problems (i.e., finding a better job with more income, such as a translation job with the UN). Based on these findings, it is recommended that practitioners and teacher educators gauge the interest of their own students and provide them a space in the classroom to recount their personal experiences so that such stories can be utilized for teaching and learning purposes. Future studies in public school settings might also shed more light on the level of motivation and whether it is connected to culture and self-efficacy.
