English Learning Motivation And English Learning Strategy Use Of Non-english Majors In Higher Vocational College

With the development of general linguistics, psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology, language teachers and researchers have realized that no single teaching method can guarantee success in second/foreign language acquisition/learning. So researchers'attention has shifted from teaching to learning. Language learners become the center of language teaching and learning. As for language learners, many factors affect their language learning, especially language learning motivation and language learning strategy. In our country, most of the research focuses on English majors or non-English majors in Chinese tertiary education. However, little research has been done to investigate the English learning motivations and the use of language learning strategies among non-English majors in vocational colleges. With the increasing popularization of China's education, higher vocational college students have occupied more than half of the total current college students in China's universities. Under such kind of circumstance, studies on their English learning are necessary and urgent.The research was carried out among 142 non-English majors in Quanzhou Li Ming Vocational University through a questionnaire survey. This research adopted English learning Motivation Scale of Chinese College Students by Gao, et al (2004) and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL Version 7.0 ESL/EFL) by Oxford (1990);as measurements, which include students'background information and the use of their English learning motivation and strategy. The author analyzed these data by SPSS 13.0 software. The research revealed that:1) Most of the vocational college non-English majors had instrumental, extrinsic and achievement motivation, but were more instrumentally motivated. Efficient learners have strong integrative motivation; less-efficient learners have strong extrinsic motivation.2) Most of the vocational college non-English majors have employed learning strategies at a medium level in their English learning. All the students used compensation strategies the most frequently. But efficient learners are better at using all strategies; while less-efficient learners are more likely to use cognitive and social strategies.3)There is a strong relationship between language learning motivations and language learning strategies; the research also found out positive and significant correlation between motivation types, motivation intensity and strategy use frequency. A cyclical relationship exists between motivation intensity and strategy use. English learning motivations have a great impact on English learning strategy choice. Different types of motivation have different impacts on strategy choice that is more motivated the students, the more frequently they reported using learning strategies.The author expects the findings of the research will help teachers with their further study about the vocational EFL students'English learning motivation and strategy use. At the same time, the author hopes this research will help college English teachers improve their teaching methods, help learners learn English more autonomously and effectively.