A Study On The Relationship Between Non-English Majors' Language Aptitude,English Learning Motivation And Learning Achievements

The present study makes an attempt to explore the relationship between non-English majors' language aptitude,English learning motivation and learning achievements.Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are adopted in the study.The subjects are 106 freshmen majoring in accounting.And they are from two classes of Zhixing College of Hubei University in Wuhan.The author employs several kinds of instruments to implement the study.The instrument for investigating language aptitude is based on MLAT(Modern language Aptitude Test),which is designed by Carroll&Sapon.And the instrument for probing into English learning motivation is Gao Yihong's classification of motivation type scale.An interview is also used to make a further investigation of the study.According to relevant theories and researches as well as research questions of the present study,the author designs the interview outline by herself.The last instrument for measuring English achievements is the subjects' English scores of College Entrance Examination.The research questions are as following:(1)What are the general situations of non-English majors' language aptitude and English learning motivation?(2)What is the relationship between language aptitude and English learning motivation?(3)What is the relationship between learning achievements and other two variables--language aptitude and learning motivation?The data are processed with SPSS,including descriptive analysis,independent samples t-test,and correlation analysis.The major findings of the present study:(1)In general,non-English majors' language aptitude stays at medium level.And their English learning motivation goes to a moderate degree.(2)There is no significant correlation between non-English majors' language aptitude and English learning motivation on the whole.However,several subtests of Modern Language Aptitude Test(MLAT)and some motivation subtypes correlate with each other.(3)Non-English majors' language aptitude significantly correlates with English learning achievements.(4)There are statistically significant differences between high-scorers and low-scorers in language aptitude.High-scorers score higher than low-scorers in all the subtests of MLAT except for phonetic script test.(5)There exists weak correlation between non-English majors' English learning motivation and learning achievements.However,intrinsic interest motivation and individual development motivation have significantly positive correlation with English learning achievements.And learning situation motivation negatively correlates with English learning achievements.(6)Statistically significant differences also exist between high-scorers and low-scorers in English learning motivation.High-scorers obviously score higher than low-scorers in intrinsic interest motivation,individual development motivation,information media motivation,social responsibility motivation and going abroad motivation,especially in intrinsic interest motivation and individual development motivation.But Low-scorers hold stronger immediate achievement motivation and learning situation motivation than high-scorers,especially the immediate achievement motivation.By analyzing the results from the test,the questionnaire as well as the interview,some pedagogical implications are put forward for college English teaching.