Tertiary students' English language learning motivation: A systematic review

This paper aims to present where research is necessary on tertiary students' language learning motivation to learn English as an additional language. Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched articles in three databases: Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. We synthesized 46 studies published between 2014 and 2024 on undergraduate students' English learning motivation. We focused on tertiary students because this age group tends to involve the largest number of participants in research on L2 motivation. The findings revealed that self determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2020) is the most often used framework, followed by the second language motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009). Quantitative research design dominates the methodological landscape; the most frequently used data collection instruments were questionnaires and interviews. The findings indicated that intrinsic, extrinsic, integrative, and instrumental motivation, ideal L2 self, and ought to L2 self were significantly associated with students' English learning motivation and L2 achievements. We identified gaps where more research is needed: in what ways students' motivation changes over time, their engagement with various task types, relationships between motivation and other variables, including, for example, grit and extramural English.