Chinese Non-English Majors' Beliefs Concerning EFL Motivation

In the field of second language acquisition, motivation has been considered to be one of the main factors in determining learning outcomes. Motivation concerns the direction and magnitude of human behavior. Language learning motivation not only includes choosing language learning, but also involves sustaining efforts and persistence. Researchers have proposed various motivational constructs from different perspectives in order to establish motivational components that influence the intensity of language learning motivation. Among them, learners' goal-setting, valence, self-efficacy, attribution of previous performance, teachers' authority type and feedback have been theoretically and empirically confirmed to be important motivational components. For the purpose of improving students' motivational strength, teachers should attach emphasis to these established components rather than simply persuading students into applying more time and energy to English learning.In order to help Chinese College English teachers have a good understanding of students' beliefs concerning EFL motivational components and the influence of their beliefs on their motivational behavior, the author has conducted a survey among 150 non-English major undergraduates to find out their beliefs that negatively influence the increase of motivation. Results of the survey show that existing problems include students' high perception of EFL cost, unbalanced expectations of four basic language skills, attributing previous failure to uncontrollable factors, ignoring long-term and mastery goals, and perceiving teachers as controlling and less informative. This study has also uncovered different beliefs among students of different grades and genders: with the increase of school grades, students' interest, self-efficacy, long-term goals and mastery goals decrease while perception of EFL cost increases; male students are less interested in English than female students. Finally, the author provides some suggestions as to how to alter students' negative motivational beliefs and enhance students' level of motivation.