An Empirical Study On English Learning Motivation Of First-year Non-English Majors

In the field of foreign language teaching and learning, motivation is considered as a key factor to language learning. For this reason, it is always an important research focus and a lot of researches have been done on it. Now in China, many researchers have carried out empirical studies on the motivation situations of both English majors and non-English majors, and much work has been done to classify students'motivation types and to detect influential variables that affect their English learning motivation. However, few of them specially concentrate on the L2 learning motivation of first-year non-English majors. On the basis of theories and researches in the field, an empirical study is designed to investigate the current situation of English learning motivation of first-year students in non-English majors.The subjects in the survey are 132 first-year non-English majors from Shandong University at Weihai. Two instruments—a questionnaire and freshmen's final examination scores—are employed. In the research, motivation types of freshmen are studied. Differences in motivation types between male freshmen and female freshmen, between high achievers and low achievers are explored. Besides, correlation between motivation types and English achievement is examined. With the help of SPSS 13, factor analysis, comparative analysis and correlation analysis are carried out. The results are summed up as follows:(1) seven motivation types are concluded, namely intrinsic interest, requirement motivation, personal development, learning situation, going abroad, achievement motivation, and teaching materials'influence. Among them, intrinsic interest motivation ranks the first; (2) male freshmen and female freshmen present different intendancy in motivation. Females are mostly motivated by intrinsic and integrative motivation, while males are strongly affected by instrumental motivation; (3) first-year college students with different levels of English proficiency show significant differences in intrinsic interest motivation. High achievers have stronger intrinsic motivation than low achievers. Low achievers have stronger instrumental motivation than high achievers; (4) intrinsic interest motivation positively correlates with English achievement at the significant level, while there is no significant correlation existing between the other six motivation types and English achievement. Finally, suggestions on how to stimulate the English learning motivation of first-year non-English majors are put forward.