On the Relationship between Writing Motivation, Academic Achievement, and Gender in tertiary education

Abstract

The present paper seeks to investigate the students’ writing motivation and its relationship with two dependent variables: gender and writing academic performance. To achieve this aim, a ten-item Likert scale questionnaire was designed and administered to 98 undergraduate students, randomly selected from the English Department at Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal. To compute the data, three tests were conducted, ANOVA, Pearson and T-test. The statistical analysis demonstrated that extrinsic motivation is the most frequent writing orientation and that both motivation constructs, intrinsic and extrinsic, positively correlate with the students' writing performance in semesters three and four writing exams. Additionally, the study also showed a significant difference between males and females about their motivational orientation.