A Study On Foreign Language Learning Motivation For Non-English Majors

There have been considerable investigations and research related to motivation in SLA. The most influential work in this field has been the social-educational model of Gardner and Lambert and their associates. The model has mainly focused on two motivations for foreign language learning: the integrative motivation and the instrumental motivation. The intrinsic/extrinsic motivation represents another dichotomy in language learning and teaching theories. As the research on motivation types is limited and small in scale, this thesis is to make some deep study and investigations in this area. According to the results of investigations, this thesis focuses on the inspiration, the ways to motivate the students as well as the stimulation of intrinsic motivation.Based on the research literature and guided by the above-mentioned theories, a questionnaire is designed. The subject consists of 110 students randomly selected from Changzhou Institute of Technology. The investigation indicates that most students have instrumental motivation, a few students have integrative motivation, and the students have obvious extrinsic motivation, while their intrinsic motivation needs to be stimulated. Based on the findings of the investigation, internal and external motivation variables are discussed. The analyses indicate that the stimulation of the students' learning motivation is very important. Finally I make some suggestions on stimulating students' intrinsic motivation in class. In addition to many other strategies and techniques, promoting self-perceptions of competence and cooperative learning are especially recommended. I hope that the results of my study will be helpful to college English teachers in motivating their students.