the relationship between islamic spiritual intelligence and instrumental vs. integrative motivation for learning efl across various proficiency levels

the relationship between islamic spiritual intelligence and instrumental vs. integrative motivation for learning efl across various proficiency levels

the main aim of this descriptive correlation research was to determine if iranian efl learners’ islamic spiritual intelligence correlated with their instrumental and integrative motivations to learn english. the study also investigated if any significant differences existed in the relationships among these variables across different proficiency levels. in order to collect the pertinent data, the islamic spiritual intelligence, instrumental and integrative motivation questionnaires were sent to efl learners through various online language learning platforms.

a total number of 359 efl participants (intermediate, n = 132, upper intermediate, n = 88, advanced, n = 139) filled all three questionnaires. the spearman rank order coefficient of correlation was first applied to analyze the data collected. the results indicated that the relationships between islamic spiritual intelligence, instrumental motivation and integrative motivation were statistically positive, large and significant.

then, the correlation coefficients of the three constructs within each proficiency level and their observed z values were calculated. the subsequent results revealed no significant differences in the relationships between islamic spiritual intelligence, instrumental and integrative motivations across different proficiency levels.

therefore, it was concluded that higher islamic spiritual intelligence (isi) correlates with higher instrumental motivation as well as higher integrative motivation to learn english among iranian efl learners and this phenomenon is the same across all three proficiency levels. thus, this study not only provides statistical evidence of the relationship among these variables, but it also suggests that islamic spiritual intelligence may play an important role in instrumental and integrative motivations to learn english among iranian efl learners.