A Study Of The Comparison Between Senior Middle School And College Students On The Relationship Between Foreign Language Learning Motivation And Strategy

This research investigates reliability and validity of the serial questionnaires on foreign language learning motivation and foreign language learning strategies,which are adapted and integrated research tools on the basis of the inventories used in previous studies.The purposes of this research were to explore:the status of foreign language learning motivation and foreign language learning strategies held by senior high school students and college students;the explicit relationships between foreign language learning motivation and foreign language learning strategies;the correlation between the motivational concept and the motivational exterior behavior;the influences of the factors(such as school type,school level and gender) on foreign language learning motivation and foreign language learning strategies;as well as the overall developing trend of foreign language learning motivation and learning strategies in the process from senior high school to university.Methods:With regard to the research's teaching practice and research purposes,and using the criteria of dimensional classification of College English Learning Motivation Questionnaire by Gao Yihong,as well as Qin Xiaoqing's the norms of Effort Degree in English Learning Questionnaire from his book The Study on the Foreign Language Learning Motivation of College Students for reference,the Foreign Language Learning Motivation Questionnaire was finally formed;with the reference to classifications of learning strategies by O'Mally and Chamot(2001),Foreign Language Learning Strategy Questionnaire used in this research was adapted from Strategy Inventory,for Language Learning(SILL) by R.Oxford(1990).The investigations were carried out on the same day in Yu Cat Middle School,Yu Cat Middle School in Jing Kai District,Southwest University, Chongqing University of Science and Technology.840 questionnaires were sent out and 790 of them were handed in.The total number of valid questionnaires is 727,and the percentage is 92.02%.The data from the investigation were analyzed by AMOS7.0 and SPSS16.0.The main findings are as following:(1) Reliability and Validity.Internal consistency coefficient of the second-level factors in the Foreign Language Learning Motivation Questionnaire is 0.731-0.814,while the coefficient of the first-level factors is higher than 0.8;internal consistency coefficient of the each factors in Foreign Language Learning Strategy Questionnaire is 0.693-0.826.in a word,the two questionnaires both have high internal consistency reliability.The results of confirmatory factor analysis show that the sub-model of learning motivational concept(x2/df = 4.813,RMSEA=0.072),motivational exterior behavior sub-model(x2/df=4.739,RMSEA=0.072),the general model of learn foreign languages motivation(x2/df=4.307,RMSEA=0.067),the general model of language learning strategy(x2/df =4.365,RMSEA=0.068) all have good construct validity.(2) The status of foreign language learning motivation and foreign language learning strategies held by senior high school students and college students,and the explicit relationships between foreign language learning motivation and foreign language learning strategies.In general,to the extent of the learning motivational concept,the similarities between college students and senior high school students are that——the instrumental motivation is strongest, followed by the cultural motivation and learning situation-related motivation;while the differences between the two groups of students exist in and motivation in the subordinate dimensions of motivational concept and motivational exterior behavior.To the extent of learning strategies,the similarities between college students and senior high school students are that——compensation strategies are most frequently used,followed by memory strategies;their differences are that——for college students,social strategies and affective strategies are significantly more frequently used than meta-cognitive strategies and cognitive strategies,while for senior high school students,there are no significant difference among the above four strategies.Generally speaking,senior high school students are stronger than college students in the correlation between foreign language learning motivation and learning strategies.Both display big differences in the strategies of the highest motivation correlation.(3) The relationship between motivational concept and motivational exterior behavior.For college and high school students,motivational concept is much stronger than motivational exterior behavior in learning practice.Through the correlation analysis of the two factors,the author found among the subordinate types of motivation concept,the cultural motivation correlates highest with motivational exterior behavior,at 0.606 with significant correlation.(4) The influences of the factors(such as school type,school level and gender) on foreign language learning motivation and foreign language learning strategies.On the learning motivation,students' motivational concept in key university is stronger than that of non-key university,but there is no difference in motivational exterior behavior between the two types of universities;no difference exists between key high school and non-key one.On the learning strategies,students in key university use memory strategies and compensation strategies obviously more than students in non-key university,however,the significant difference between key high school students and non-key ones only exists in cognitive strategies.The main effects and interactions of gender and school level with the learning motivation and learning strategies were significant.(5) Trend in development.On foreign language learning motivation,with the exception of score motivation becomes lower with the grades changing from high school to university,the general motivational concept,information motivation,situation-related motivation and effort degree increase with the grades changing from high school to university;On learning strategies,all the six types of strategies present an upward trend from high school to university,among which compensation strategies and social mediation increase on the largest scale.In terms of each educational stage,high school or university,most motivations and learning strategies manifest downward trend with the grade enhancement from lower to higher.Conclusion:The questionnaires have good internal consistency reliability and construct validity. The two different educational stages,high school and university,manifest different features in the correlation between learning motivation and learning strategies,the interaction between gender and school level in the learning motivation and learning strategy,the influences of key or non-key schools on learning motivation and learning strategies.All in all,in terms of educational stage, strength of motivations and application of strategies increase with the grade enhancement from high school to university,but in each educational stage,learning motivations and strategies manifest downward trend from lower grades to higher grade.In view of the above findings,several teaching advices are put forward:foreign language teachers should help students to foster the correct understanding of foreign language learning;inspire students' moderate learning motivation;carry out systematic strategy training for students;encourage students to learn in a cooperative way;and help students learn to keep mental health in learning process.