Exploring Beauty Students’ Motivation for Learning English

Exploring Beauty Students’ Motivation for Learning English

The present study set out to explore what propels university students aspiring to careers in thehospitality industry to engage in learning English as a foreign language. In this pursuit, 69beauty students at a four-year university were asked to shed light on their underlying reasonspertaining, in particular, to achievement goal orientations. A survey through self-reportedquestionnaires was used covering the students’ career prospects, perceptions of English, andexperiences of and anticipation for English use in and outside of the homeland. The studyindicates that the students as a whole were more interested in acquiring language skillsnecessary to interact with foreigners in social and work-related contexts than gaining knowledgeor test-taking skills required to excel in school, procure employment, and/or advance theircareers per se. The study also reveals that most students were motivated to learn English,especially in anticipation of using the language in their future capacity as service providers,consultants, and educators in beauty-related fields. These findings point to English educationthat is geared toward enhancement of the students’ communicative competence to the extentwhich they can converse and interact with foreigners who speak English. The study ismeaningful in that it offers fresh insights into the reality, as perceived by the students, whilechallenging some conventional assumptions about their motivation.