A Study Of Learning Situation Components That Affect Students' Learning Motivation In The Esc Courses

The proposal of “the Belt and Road” initiative has brought new missions and opportunities to foreign language education.In order to train personnel with good language proficiency and comprehensive knowledge of politics,economy,society,culture,etc.of relevant English-speaking countries(ESC),a university in Northeast China has developed a curriculum on the studies of ESC for English majors at the undergraduate level.Based on the tripartite L2 motivation construct proposed by D?rnyei,this study attempts to explore the impacts of learning situation(LS)components on students' learning motivation(LM),the ways that LS components affect students' LM and problems that exist at LS level.A mixed method of quantitative and qualitative research was adopted.Data were collected through questionnaires,semi-structured interviews and classroom observation.Interviews were carried out with 10 students learning the courses of ESC studies and 4 teachers responsible for the courses.Three courses of the ESC studies were observed.The study has yielded the following findings.Firstly,in terms of the course-specific components,the adoption of project-based learning,syllabus,learning tasks and teaching materials all stimulated students' LM.Secondly,in terms of the teacher-specific components,teachers with the sense of responsibility,enthusiasm and humor could motivate students' LM better.Besides,teachers' eye language,facial expressions and para-languages played a great role in motivating students' LM.Thirdly,in terms of the group-specific components,cooperative goal structures could motivate students' motivation better than individualistic goal structures did.With positive relations and an oriented goal in the group,students were better motivated.Problems that affected students' LM in these aspects were identified,and suggestions on the solutions to the problems were proposed accordingly.