STUDENTS MOTIVATION AND LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: THE CASE OF JORDANIAN LEARNERS OF ITALIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

This research investigates the relationship between students’ integrative/ instrumental motivation and language proficiency in Italian among Jordanian learners of Italian as a foreign language (LS) at Al al-Bayt University. The study also sheds light on the level of proficiency among students majoring in Italian at Al al-Bayt University. Two instruments were utilized in this study: the first is a five-point Likert scale questionnaire based on Gardner and MacIntyre (1990) to investigate students' motivational orientations and attitudes; the second is a proficiency test sourced from an official Italian language website. The test was evaluated and modified to suit the purposes of the study. The results show that there is no correlation between motivation (integrative and instrumental)/attitudes and proficiency among students of Italian as a foreign language in Jordan. Furthermore, the findings indicate that students majoring in Italian exhibit a low level of proficiency in Italian as a foreign language at Al al-Bayt University.