A Study Of College Non-English Majors' English Learning Motivation Under Grade Education

With the development of higher education in China, more and more people have access to college, which brings increasing individual differences. As one of the foundation courses, college English teaching has been experiencing a great challenge. Hence, grade education has been wildly applied to college English pedagogical reform to emphasize individual differences and to improve English learning in different levels. However, the real increase of students' English proficiency also requires stimulating their motivation to learn. Learning motivation is a key aspect of learners'psychological facts and individual differences, which has significant influence on the whole process and the outcome of English learning.The thesis is concerned with a study of motivation among non-English major undergraduates studying in Harbin Institute of Technology Weihai (WHHIT) under grade education. Two research designs were employed in the present study:a quantitative research design and a qualitative design; the former was a questionnaire and the latter, an interview. Then all the data were subjected to statistical analysis with the system of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 18.0), which includes:reliability analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis, ANOVA analysis and t-test.The major findings of the study are summed up as follows:1) Six types of language learning motivation (personal development, information medium, going abroad, learning situation, intrinsic interest, and immediate achievement) were found after the research. Among these, "instrumental motivation" "cultural motivation" and "situational motivation" are further catalogued. Among them, instrumental motivation is the major motivation the subject students possess. And then learning situation motivation is more powerful than cultural motivation.2) Cultural motivation has great positive influence on learners'achievement, while situational motivation has negative one. Besides, both instrumental and cultural motivations contribute to learners'learning effort. While situational motivation has no significant correlation with learning effort.3) Female learners scored higher than male learners on personal development, learning situation and intrinsic interest. Among different background, significant difference only exits in going abroad. 4) Class A students, compared with class B, have stronger cultural motivation. In addition, they are more motivated by personal development, information medium. And there is no significant difference in motional intensity between class A and class B.Then, this study presents some implications for college English grade education teaching and learning in Chinese context.