Abstract

The purposes of this study were to understand ESL (English as a Second Language) students’ learning motivations and learning strategies in the West North Central division of the United Stated. Respondents included 133 students enrolled in intensive English classes in six institutions in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Dakota. This study concluded that the ESL students in the West North Central Division of the United States tend to be more instrumentally motivated than integratively motivated when learning English. In addition, African students are more instrumentally motivated than are the American, Asian, European, and Middle Eastern students. The ESL students in West North Central states prefer using metacognitive, social, compensation, and cognitive strategies more frequently than using memory and affective strategies. Overall, female students use strategies more frequently than male students when learning English. European students prefer memory strategies and African students prefer cognitive, metacognitive, and affective strategies. European and Asian students prefer compensation strategies and Middle Eastern students prefer social strategies. The researcher suggests that since ESL students’ learning motivations and strategies are different, ESL instructors should understand more about students’ motivations and strategies in order to vary their teaching style to achieve better results in language learning.