Foreign Language Learning Motivation And College English Teaching

With the increasing communication between China and other countries,English has become into one of major languages in China,therefore more and more students show great enthusiasm to learning English, even hope English can give them a hand in job hunting or future study.A lot of linguists and psychologists believe motivation is one factor affecting language learning efficacy, the impulse stimulating persons to conduct certain activities, a kind of inner power promoting foreign language learning, and a type of conscious and positive state of psychology in learning activity. In view of the importance of English, language teaching puts much emphasis on the language teaching and probe into the various teaching methods or theories to promote the efficacy of language learning.The thesis studies the foreign language learning motivation from the theory to application, beginning with its different definitions given by different linguists on the base of various theories. It includes the well-accepted definition given by Gardner & Lambert, popular one defined by Maslow from humanistic perspective and other definitions proposed respectively by different linguists. Then, the thesis focuses on the study and analysis of motivations from behavioral, humanistic and cognitive perspectives with the application of reinforcement theory, need theory and attribution theory. In order to discuss and illustrate the motivation, the author studies it from different classifications, and then factors influencing motivation are mentioned.Meanwhile, the thesis investigates university students'motivations in EFL with the methods of questionnaire and data analysis to prove the correlation between learning motivation and learning achievement. With the principle that theory serves practice, the author puts forward some methods and implications to stimulate learning motivation from different perspectives, anticipating stimulating students'learning motivation and offering assistance to those teachers working in the first front of teaching.