What influences students´ motivation for learning English grammar?

Abstract:  The aim of this paper was to investigate what influences students’ motivation for learning English grammar. As I analyzed previous research I came up with these questions: What different kinds of strategies seem to be the most motivating for the students? What kind of motivation do learners have for grammar? Are learners positive or negative towards grammar, does their motivation come from within themselves or does it come from elements outside themselves? How important is it for learners that what they study is meaningful for them? How important is the teacher – student relationship for motivation? What do learners think of Task-based teaching? What are the best ways of learning? Through a questionnaire that was given to students of two classes at a Swedish upper secondary school, I wanted to see learner’ opinions about motivation and grammar. The questionnaire was given to 54 students and of these I could use 36. Generally students were positive towards grammar and thought that the teacher-student relationship was to some extent important for learning grammar. The biggest source of motivation was to have a good grade and it was clear that they learn grammar differently. It seemed to be important for them to know why you learn something. Students thought that “teacher talking” was a good way to learn grammar but not a good way to make grammar interesting and motivational.