Exploring English Major Students’ Directed Motivational Currents In Universities Of Tibet

Motivation is one of the important factors for the success of English learning and teaching,and the study of motivation has received high attention from many educators and researchers.It has always been one of the research focuses in the field of second and third language acquisition both domestically and internationally.In particular,the second language motivation theory,which has developed from the 1950 s to the present,has gone through four main stages—the social psychology stage,the cognitive-situated stage,the process-oriented stage,until the current dynamic stage.D?rnyei and other researchers inherited and developed previous theories,proposing a new theory,namely the directed motivational currents(DMCs).This new theory of L2 motivation is not only an innovation in the theory of learning motivation,but also puts forward new requirements for the research paradigm of motivation.However,existing research has paid little attention to DMCs,and there are few relevant empirical studies,and few studies on English learning DMCs with trilingual learners,especially Tibetan college students.Therefore,this study focuses on the following questions:(1)What is the overall trend of DMCs in English learning of English major students in universities of Tibet?(2)What are the main factors that affect DMCs in English learning of English major students in universities of Tibet?(3)Are there group differences of DMCs in English learning of English major students in universities of Tibet? If so,what are the differences?Based on the DMCs and dynamic systems theory(DST),this study selects 100 teacher-oriented English major students who experienced DMCs or DMC-like motivation as subject in Universities in Tibet,and takes advantage of both qualitative and quantitative methods through retrospective interviews,questionnaire surveys and dynamic trajectory graph in terms of investigating dynamic change of DMCs in English learning of English major students.The result of this study shows that:(1)The results support the notion that DMCs are a well-recognisable and widely experienced motivational phenomenon in the process of English major students’ English learning,and it fluctuates around the examination to some extent.(2)DMCs are the result of the interplay of various external and internal factors such as school environment,classroom teaching,learning interest and learners’ personal quality.(3)On an account of inter-group differences,there are similarities and differences in motivational currents in different grades,ethnic groups and gender.The duration of DMCs is similar in each group,but slight difference exists among them in learning trajectory and influencing factors.(4)The interactive and nonlinear relationship exists between motivational intensity and four dimensions of DMCs.The cumulative conclusions presented in this thesis have some valuable implications for foreign language research and teaching,and attaches great importance to study motivational currents from a diachronic perspective to examine the changing patterns of each period.Teachers are an indispensable factor in promoting students’ motivation for second language learning,and they play a crucial role in helping learners experience DMCs.Therefore,teachers should create favorable initial conditions,such as establishing harmonious teacher-student relationships and creating a pleasant classroom atmosphere,and improve students’ goal orientation by setting clear classroom goals.Furthermore,foreign language teachers should fully take individual differences and group commonalities in English learning into consideration,in which to motivate and cultivate learners’ DMCs in the process of teaching.