MOTIVATION, LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT, AND EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS: A PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LINGUISTIC APPROACH TO ENGLISH TEACHING FOR SUSTAINABLE LEARNING OUTCOMES (SDGS 4 & 8)

This paper explores The Psychological-Linguistic Nexus as a predictive score of the sustainable results of English Language Teaching (ELT) among Bachelor of Science (BS) students in the country’s regional centers of Lahore and Gujranwala in Pakistan. Although years of formal teaching have shown a decrease in the Gap, the phenomenon of the Gap has yielded significant persistence with linguistic proficiency not converting to professional capital in the long-term. It was based on the Self-Determination Theory and the L2 Motivational Self-System and had a Mixed-Methods Convergent Parallel Design (N=200) to determine the influence of psychological constructs on linguistic retention and alignment with SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 8 (Decent Work): Ideal L2 Self, Learner Autonomy, and Affective Filter. The Independent Samples T-Tests used in quantitative analysis found a "Motivation Paradox: although students in both cities have a high Ideal L2 Self (mean=4.55), a large Anxiety Gap exists, and Affective Filter is reported by means of students in Gujranwala significantly higher than by Lahore (p=0.002). Moreover, a Functional Proficiency and Retention Battery (FPRB) showed that with the contextualization of English tasks (e.g., export trade in the case of Gujranwala and digital services in the case of Lahore) the Retention Index was 88.8% higher, which is the indication that the contextualization is the key to linguistic durability. Thematic analysis of qualitative data has identified the Rote-Learning Trap as one of the major obstacles to SDG 4, and the students have regarded traditional curricula as something disposable. On the other hand, English was viewed as an important instrument of the Human Capital development with a direct impact on SDG 8. The research finds that sustainable ELT in Pakistan needs to be based on a shift of exam-centered model to regionalized and professional-identity model. Proposing recommendations to the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the introduction of English for specific purposes (ESP) and inclusion of digital autonomy to enable lifelong learning should be implemented.