EFL for Palestinian Security Personnel in Workplace : Exploring Officers ’ Motivation and Attitudes

This study aimed at exploring the Palestinian security personnel motivation and attitudes towards English as a Foreign Language in workplace. In addition, the study sought to reveal the relationship between motivation and attitudes and some variables such as: English language level and time in service. The study was conducted on a random sample of 381. The findings showed that Palestinian security personnel integrative motivation is very high, and their instrumental motivation is high. Results revealed that their personnel attitudes towards EFL learning and its culture are positive. Results also indicated that there were no significant differences in motivation; whereas there were significant differences on the EFL culture domain in favor of who had less than 5 years time in service. Finally, results showed that there were significant differences in Palestinian security personnel motivation, attitudes toward learning EFL and native speakers’ culture due to level in English. Concerning the motivation domain, the significance was in favor of the intermediates; whereas, attitudes toward learning EFL, native speakers’ culture and the total score was in favor of beginners.


Introduction
Learning an English as a Foreign or Second Language (EFL/ESL) depends on a variety of factors especially the affective characteristics namely motivation and attitudes.Those factors have frequently been investigated as variables to be the most influential factors for success in EFL/ESL learning (Csizér and Dörnyei, 2005;Dörnyei, 2001;Dörnyei, 1998;Ellis, 1997;Gardner and Lysynchuk, 1990;Humaida, 2012;Juriševič and Pižorn, 2013;Krashen, 2012;Kim and Kim, 2013;McDonough, 1983;Paula M. Winke, 2005;Sonda, 2011).The role of motivation and attitudes has been stressed in teaching/learning any subject at all levels in general.Over the past ten years, a huge body of research has emphasized the significant and crucial role of motivation and attitudes in foreign/second language learning especially classical works by Gardner and Lambert who had developed second language motivation theory rapidly (Gardner & Lambert, 1972;Gardener, 1985, Gardener &MacIntyre, 1993).A socio-educational model focused on second language acquisition (SLA) consisting of three variables namely: motivation, integrativness and attitudes towards the learning situation was proposed by Gardner in 1985.

Research Problem
Many researchers consider learners' motivation and attitudes to be important factors to the "success or failure of the language learning process (Gardner and Lysynchuk, 1990;Gardner and Macltyre, 1993)" (Alhuqbani, 2009: 37).However, in the context of ESP there were very few studies that were concerned with EFL for the workplace e.g., Alhuqbani, 2009 andAl-Khatib, 2007.In Palestine, to the best of the researcher's knowledge, no study has been conducted investigating security personnel's motivation and attitudes as related to EFL learning in the context of English for Specific Purposes (ESP).

Purpose of the study
As such personnel may be motivated to learn EFL and have attitudes towards learning it; the current study would contribute to lay the solid basis with regard to addressing their needs and providing such language training courses to develop their competencies in EFL.Moreover, such study may help in the field of syllabus design in a way instructors will be aware of the situation of English language teaching regarding their students' language learning motivation and attitudes.Finally, the study may add general pedagogical implications to motivate security personnel for learning EFL.

Significance of the study
Such study of Palestinian security personnel's motivation and attitudes to learn English as a Foreign Language would provide important information about the Palestinian security personnel's motivation and attitudes towards English learning and the English culture, for curricula designers, decision makers, instructors and language materials developers.

Research Questions
The current study tried to address the following questions: 1. What is the motivation of Palestinian security personnel for learning English as a foreign language for their workplace?
2. What are the Palestinian security personnel attitudes towards learning EFL and culture?Also, the present study tested the following hypotheses: 1.There are no significant differences at ) 0.05 = α ( in the Palestinian security personnel motivation due to time in service variable.
2. There are no significant differences at ) 0.05 = α ( in the Palestinian security personnel motivation due to level in English language variable.

Literature review and related studies
"There are several factors that combine in a profile of a successful L2 learner.Obviously, the motivation to learn and attitude towards EFL/ ESL learning are important" (Yule, 2010: 192).For the purpose of the present study, the EFL motivation is best defined as a kind of language learning motivation which is manifested in foreign language learning in security personnel workplace such as tourism, national security, and other security maintaining sectors.There are a number of motivation models focused on the affective part of language learning have come to the scene, such as Stephen Krashen's (1981) Monitor Model and Schumann's (1986) Acculturation Model.However, Gardner's model appears as the most effective model of language learning motivation.The model became well known as the Socioeducational Model (Gardner, 1985).Motivation is defined by Gardner (1985) as "the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity" ( p. 10).The socioeducational model contains a number of components measured by using different attitudinal and motivational scales in what Gardner called the AMBT (Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery).Integrative motivation is measured by three scales: attitudes towards the target language group, interest in foreign languages, and integrative orientation.Motivation is also measured by three scales: motivational intensity, attitudes toward learning the target language and the learners' desire to learn the target language.Learners' attitudes toward the situation of learning that refers to the learner's own feelings to anything related to the immediate learning context in which it is carried out is usually measured by two scales: learners' attitudes toward the teacher and learners' attitudes toward the course taught (Kim and Kim, 2013) see figure 1.
Figure 1.A representation of the socioeducational model Adopted from Gardner (2001).The dotted square represents the borders of the integrative motivation.
According to Yule (2010), most of foreign language learners are instrumentally motivated.That is, they are willing to master the target language for achieving certain goals, for example completing a college or school course requirement or being able to read research paper, but not really for any social purposes.On the other hand, there are learners who are integratively motivated and want to master a second language for sociocultural purposes, so as to share the life of a speech community that uses the target language and to become integrated in that community.It is believed that both integrative motivation and instrumental motivation may lead to success.Motivated learner showed big success in communication and in EFL /ESL proficiency (Juriševič and Pižorn, 2013;Masgoret and Gardner, 2003).Accordingly, Yule (2010: 192) added that "motivation may be as much a result of success as a cause".
The other important factor for success in learning FEL /ESL is attitude.Attitude may be defined as "an evaluative reaction to some referent or attitude object, inferred on the basis of the individual's beliefs or opinions about the referent" (Gardner, 1985: 9).Attitude is defined as having a number of dimensions.According to Olson & Zanna, (1993), attitude consists of three dimensions: affective, cognitive, and behavioral.They illustrated that the affective IJALEL 3(2):101-111, 2014 103 component involves feelings towards things i.e., songs, persons, or languages."…It may be manifested in the form of love, hate, anxiety, and the like…" (Sonda, 2011: 359).The cognitive component, on the other hand, concerns with thoughts and beliefs.For example, "one learner may believe that English is a democratic language which is beneficial to the progress and development of his country, while another may think that it is an oppressive language destroying her native culture" (ibid).The third component is the behavioral component that concerns with a behavioral intention or plan of action.For instance, "English student making it a habit to watch Hollywood movies in English rather than Japanese subtitles" (Sonda, 2011: 359).Thus, the survey items require equal attention to the three dimensions.The relationship among such components is very clear as shown in figure 2 below.

Attitude
Figure 2. The relationship among attitude components Adapted from: Sonda, N. (2011).Japanese college students' attitudes towards English as an international language: In A. Stewart (Ed.), JALT2010 Conference Proceedings.Tokyo: JALT.
Over the past years, a huge number of studies have investigated the learner's motivation and attitudes towards the target language and its culture.Muftah and Rafik-Galea ( 2013) carried out a study that investigated students' integrative and instrumental motivation toward learning English language at Malaysian pre-university.The sample consisted of one hundred eighty two non-English majors in one of the Malaysian public universities.The findings indicated that students expressed very high instrumental and integrative motivation degrees and positive attitudes towards leaning English and that they are more instrumentally motivated.Juriševič and Pižorn (2013) conducted an empirical research on five hundred ninety one primary school pupils who were taught starting a foreign language instruction in the first triad of the Slovene primary school system.Generally, results showed that the pupils liked learning foreign languages and their self concept during the lessons is positive.
Most students preferred to classes as they are learning through games, on the other hand, they least liked foreign language classes when they read or write(traditionally instructed).This result makes it clear that the goal of foreign languages learning as students perceive may be either intrinsic or extrinsic.
Tahaineh and Daana (2013) investigated the Jordanian female undergraduates' motivation orientations (instrumental & integrative) and their attitudes towards learning a second language and attitudes toward its culture.The researchers used a stratified random sample of 184 English language and literature students at Al Balqa' Applied University-Princess Alia University College-Amman, Jordan.Results indicated that the Jordanian female undergraduates had strong instrumental motives for learning EFL for utilitarian and academic reasons, whereas, concerning students' integrative reasons, findings showed that EFL learning and its culture gained the least influence in learners' language learning motivation.However, students' attitudes towards the target language community and its members were generally found to be highly positive.
In the context of ESP, Nahavandi and Mukundan (2013) carried out a study aimed to identify motivational orientations of engineering students in Iran who study EFL.Also, the study sought to determine students attitudes towards learning English, native speakers and their culture.The researchers used a random sample of 596 students who study engineering and currently taking general English course.The findings of the study revealed that engineering students learn the English language both instrumentally and integratively.Moreover, learners showed positive attitudes towards the target language community.Furthermore, variables like gender and further education in language institutes influenced significantly some motivational orientations and attitude domains.Results also indicated that motivation was high and level of anxiety was low of those with further education in language institutes.
In a study aimed to examine the attitudes Mexican American students towards learning ESL in a structured immersion program.It also aimed to analyze the extent to which these attitudes differ in relation to the variables of gender and performance in English.The sample involved 110 students.Findings showed the appearance of a general factor that defines the homogeneous structure of the instruments used in the assessment of student attitudes toward second language learning.It also revealed the motivation to learn a second language in the context of vital necessity where learning English is a key element for the integration in a territory in which the use of Spanish is prohibited by law.
In a similar context, Al-Tamimi and Shuib (2009) tried to identify Petroleum Engineering students' motivation and attitudes towards learning the English language.Al-Tamimi and Shuib studied students' motivation as instrumental, integrative and personal.Concerning learners' attitudes, they studied the use of English as a Foreign Language in the Yemeni social context, educational context, the English language and the culture of the English speaking world.Their study sample consisted of 81 petroleum engineering students at Hadhramout University of Sciences and Technology (HUST).The researchers used two instruments for data collection a questionnaire and interviews.Regarding students'

Affect
Behavior Cognition motivation, results showed the subjects' greater support of instrumental reasons for learning the English language including utilitarian and academic reasons.Subjects regarded personal reasons as important motives.However, the results provided evidence that learning English as a part of the culture of its people had the least impact in students' English language motivation.On the other hand, data for the students' attitudes revealed that most of students had positive attitudes towards the social value and educational status of English.In addition, the findings showed the students' positive orientation toward the English language.Interestingly enough, the results indicated that a high number of the students showed their interest in the culture of the English speaking world as represented by Englishlanguage films.Humaida ( 2012) conducted a study aimed to examine motivation to learn English language among students of faculty of arts at the Islamic University-Sudan, and if there were significant statistical differences on motivation scores related to both student level and age variables.The researcher used a random sample consisted of 40 male students.The results indicated that motivation scores were higher among students, no significant differences were found on motivation attributed to class level, and there was no correlation between motivation and age.
In the context of police work, Alqurashi (2011) explored the motives of police officers in Saudi Arabia to learn English.The study was conducted as an experiment done by the researcher who taught English to 24 police officers for six months, the aim of the study was to examine the reasons why officers joined this training course, and investigated their views regarding the advantages and disadvantages of learning English as a foreign language.Results revealed that this officers were motivated to learn English and considered it the future language.According to various studies, it is believed that students with high motivation to learn a foreign language tend to perform better than those with low motivation.In Chen's study (2008), the results of 61 freshmen cadets 'orientations of motivation on English learning has been investigated.Result showed that direct contact with L2 speakers got the highest score.Instrumentality got the second highest score.Linguistic self-confidence occupied the third place.Qashoa (2006) conducted a study in Dubai aimed at examining the students' instrumental and integrative motivation for learning English, and recognizing the factors affecting learners' motivation.The researcher used a questionnaire and interviews to collect data.As for the questionnaire, the sample consisted of 100 students.For the interviews, the sample included 20 students (10 Arab English teachers and 3 supervisors).Results indicated that students got a higher degree of instrumentality than integrativeness.Results also showed that difficulties with English aspects such as vocabulary, structures and spelling were found to be the most demotivating factors for the students.
Hou, Liou and Cheng (2005) investigated military school freshmen's English and the differences in English performance and learning behaviors between students from different background.The study included 682 freshmen in 7 military schools (including 596 males and 86 females).The researchers implemented the American Language Course Placement Test to test students' English proficiency.Moreover, they developed a questionnaire to deal with students' background, motivation, attitudes and motivational intensity.Findings revealed that students are motivated to learn English more instrumentally and hold positive attitudes toward English learning, while motivational intensity is the best predictor of their English achievement.There is a significant difference in learning behaviors between good learners and low achievers.Results also indicated that there is a significant difference in listening and reading between males and females, between Chung Cheng Preparatory School (CCPS) and civilian ones (Non-CCPS), as well as among the seven military schools.Furthermore, the analysis of the difficulty degree of test items will provide English teachers with a better understanding about students' strength and weakness which is hoped be helpful in afterward instruction.

Population
The population of this study consisted of all officers in Palestinian Security Services.

Sample
The researcher used a stratified random sample that consisted of 381 officers.Tables 1, 2 and 3 show the distribution.The researcher used a five -point Likert scale questionnaire.Also, the researcher adapted some items of Alhuqbani's questionnaire (2009) and modified them to suit the study.

Validity of the questionnaire
The researcher distributed the questionnaire to a jury who are specialized in TEFL.The content was reviewed and most of them agreed that the questionnaire suits the purposes of the study.

Reliability of the questionnaire
Crombach Alpha Formula was implemented to establish the reliability of the questionnaire where it gained a score of (0.80).

Results related to the first question
The first question that the present study tried to answer says "what is the motivation of Palestinian security personnel in workplace as they perceive themselves?"To answer this question, means, percentages and SDs were used.Table ( 4) and ( 5) show the results. said that they learn EFL as it is the international language among nations.A very large number of Palestinian security personnel (91.8%) said that they learn EFL as it enables me to know more friends all over the world.Moreover, they are aware of the communicative role of English as 89.2% said that they learn EFL because it enables me to meet and communicate with native speakers and because it is the language of science.79.2% of Palestinian security personnel think that learning EFL as it enables them to think and behave like native speakers.The majority of the Palestinian security personnel (89.6%) were integratively motivated and the mean is 4.33.
Generally, as the above table states and the total score, the Palestinian security personnel are integratively motivated as they scored, as the total score (86.6 %) above shows, very high.This results agrees with Muftah and Rafik-Galea ( 2013) study.
Table 5. Means, percentages and standard deviations of the first domain On the other hand, items (2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13) show the instrumental motivation of Palestinian security personnel in workplace.As can be seen from table (4), 58.8% Palestinian security personnel said that they learn EFL because it helps me in the promotion to a higher military rank, and 58.8% said that they learn EFL as it enables me get high salary.However, 66.4% stated that they learn EFL because the capacity to communicate in English makes them cultured person.On the other hand, 85.6% of them said they learn EFL because it is easy.85.0% of the Palestinian security personnel learn EFL because it is one of the most important subjects.89.2% also learn EFL because it is the language of science.When the Palestinian security personnel were asked about the importance of English in pursuing their staff courses, most of them (85.4%)indicated that English is very important for them to do staff courses.A high percentage of the Palestinian security personnel (78.8 %) were instrumentally motivated as the total score is high where the mean is 3.94 and the SD is 0.51.
Based on the statistical analysis of the Palestinian security personnel types of motivation, it can be inferred from the results of both tables above that the Palestinian security personnel are more integratively motivated than instrumentally to learn EFL.They scored higher on integrative motivation (86.6 %) (M=4.33,SD=0.45) than on instrumental motivation variables (78.8 %) (M=3.94,SD=0.51).Such results are due to the fact that the Palestinian security personnel are aware of their real needs of EFL, and they willing to learn and master this language.Moreover, they want to communicate with native speakers, know more about culture and target language society.This result confirms with Nahavandi and Mukundan (2013) and Saricoban and Caliskan (2011).On the other hand, studies of Tahaineh and Daana (2013) and Alhuqbani ( 2009) showed the opposite.

Results related to the second question
To identify the Palestinian security personnel's attitudes towards learning EFL, the current study answered the following question: What are the Palestinian security personnel attitudes towards learning EFL?
Table 6 shows the results.Table 6 shows that the Palestinian security personnel attitudes towards learning EFL gained very high level as the total score above is 4.31 this means that 86.2% of the Palestinian security personnel have positive attitude towards learning EFL.The responses show that the Palestinian security personnel support learning foreign language, namely, English.This result agrees with Al-Tamimi and Shuib (2009) and Martínez, Pérez and Fernández (2013).On the other hand, the present study result did not support the results of Abidin, Mohammadi and Alzwari (2012).

Results related to the third question
What are the Palestinian security personnel attitudes towards the culture of native speakers of English language?To answer this question, means, percentages and standard deviations were used.Table 7 shows the results.
Table 7. Means, percentages and standard deviations of the Palestinian security personnel attitudes towards the culture of native speakers of English language Table 7 summarizes the Palestinian security personnel attitudes towards the culture of native speakers of English language.Their responses to items 1and 3 indicated that they have positive attitude towards the culture of English language.70.2%-80.0%of them said that they prefer to study about concepts and aspects of target language culture in the textbooks taught them; and they consider cultural aspects necessary to the development of EFL skills.Meanwhile, they did not agree that knowledge of target language culture may affect learners' values or family traditions.Also, they did not agree that learning the TL culture is a bad idea.Moreover, they said that they need to learn about the target language culture as it is clear in item 5.It is pretty obvious that the Palestinian security personnel have favorable attitudes toward EFL culture.Such results show clearly how much the Palestinian security personnel are aware of the importance of target language culture in learning EFL.The Palestinian security personnel believe that the inclusion of the foreign language culture does not have any dangerous influence on their own culture.This shows that they are able to manage their learning even if the target language culture is embedded in text books.Such positive attitude to EFL culture may lead to more comprehension of language pragmatics (Rafieyan, Majid and Eng, 2013;Thanasoulas, 2001).Alhuqbani (2007) had the opposite result when the respondents in his study responded that they prefer to maintain a distance from foreign language culture.

Results related to the first hypothesis
There are no significant differences at ) 0.05 = α (in the Palestinian security personnel motivation due to time in service variable.
To test this hypothesis, One Way ANOVA was implemented.It can be safely said, as tables 8 and 9 show, that there are no significant differences in Palestinian security personnel motivation and attitudes towards learning EFL due to the time in service variable.However, there are significant differences in Palestinian security personnel attitudes towards native speakers' culture.To determine in favor of which level the differences are, the researcher used LSD Post Hoc Test.Tables 10 and 11 show the results.Table 11 shows that there are significant differences in Palestinian security personnel attitudes towards native speakers' culture and the total score in favor of less than 5 years in service and more than 10 years in service.
Results of tables 9 and 10 indicate that almost all security personnel regardless the difference in time in service agree that there is a pressing need to learn and know much about the target language culture.Palestinian security personnel are keen to be familiar with the target language cultural values and concepts.They are not satisfied to know their cultural values; on the contrary they believe that they need to have these values in their textbooks.noticed from the figures of tables 9 and 10 above it can be safely inferred that learning EFL became a need.And there is a strong tendency represented in the level of their motivation and attitudes.Such results agree with Qaddomi (2013) where cadets expressed a strong need to learn and master EFL.

Results related to the second hypothesis
There are no significant differences at ) 0.05 = α (in the Palestinian security personnel motivation due to level in English language.
Independent Sample T-Test was used to test the hypothesis.Table 12 shows the results.Table 12 shows that there are significant differences in the Palestinian security personnel motivation, attitudes toward learning EFL and native speakers' culture due to level in English language.
Concerning the motivation domain, the significance is in favor of the intermediates; whereas, Palestinian security personnel attitudes toward learning EFL, native speakers' culture and the total score is in favor of beginners.This result asserts the previous one and supports the idea that Palestinian security personnel, regardless their level, have positive attitudes to learn more and more about the TL culture.Moreover, such results show to what extent the security personnel are aware of the importance of culture to learn a language.Furthermore, this positive attitude and high motivation to learn EFL is create such openness to integrate into the target language community.It is very clear from the above significant values that Palestinian security personnel have strong motives to communicate with native speakers and become similar to them.This result is consistent with Alhuqbani (2009) and Muftah & Rafik-Galea (2013) which reached the same conclusion.

Conclusions and recommendations
In the light of the study results, it is very obvious that Palestinian security personnel motivation is very high.Precisely, they are integratively and instrumentally motivated.Also, their attitudes towards EFL learning and its culture are positive.As motivation starts with a need and leads to a behavior (Melendy, 2008), it urges people towards achieving their aims.Additionally, the present study asserts the conclusions illustrated by studies that reached the same conclusion.In other words, such studies concluded that EFL learners are instrumentally and integratively motivated (Alhuqbani ,2009;Al-Tamimi & Shuib, 2009;Javid, Al-Asmari, and Farooq, 2012;;Juriševič , & Pižorn, 2013;Nahavandi & Mukundan, 2013).What was surprising is the positive attitudes towards learning EFL and its culture the Palestinian security personnel have.This helps a lot and paves the road to language acquisition as they are ready to acquire language and be involved in its culture.Further studies on Palestinian security personnel motivation and attitudes should be pursued to meet the various, and constantly changing language demands of security sectors especially with the global changes of security men duties.Replica studies could be conducted to test if there is a relationship between motivation, attitudes and security agency variable.

Table 1 .
Sample distribution according to officers' English Language level

Table 2 .
Sample distribution according to officers' time in service

Table 3 .
Reliability of the questionnaire according to the domains

Table 4 .
means, percentages and standard deviations of the first domain

Table 6 .
Means, percentages and standard deviations of the Palestinian security personnel attitudes towards learning EFL

Table 8 .
Table 8 shows the results.Descriptive statistics according to time in service

Table 9 .
Results of One-Way ANOVA according to time in service

Table 10 .
LSD Post Hoc test results for differences in means of time in service variable according to attitudes toward native speakers' culture domain

Table 9
shows that there are significant differences in Palestinian security personnel attitudes towards native speakers' culture in favor of those who have less than 5 years in service and more than 10 years in service.

Table 11 .
LSD results for differences in means of time in service variable according to total score

Table 12 :
Independent Sample T-test results