Achievement Motivation And The Effectiveness Of Self-Access Language Learning-An Experimental Study

The international interest in Self-access Language Learning (SALL) and learner autonomy in recent years has manifested itself in proliferation of papers, books and conference presentations. Self-access has been applied in many different ways and forms all over the world. China also has seen a recent surge in the development of self-access centers. But such sophisticated self-access centers and advanced SALL theories do not automatically lead to learners' autonomous learning. Before learner autonomy can be established, learners' beliefs, expectancy and attitudes about language learning must be considered. So in the context of China, how to guarantee the effectiveness of SALL has become a hot topic.A growing body of evidence suggests that language learning is not only a cognitive act, but also a highly affective one. It is generally acknowledged that motivation is one of the key affective factors on language learning success. Motivation influences learners' autonomy, attention, effort, persistence and their learning achievement, etc. Research on motivation, and achievement motivation in particular, has burgeoned over the last 30 years in both the educational psychology and developmental psychology literatures. Achievement motivation refers to the need for achievement, which is defined now as a concern with success in competition with some standard of excellence (McClelland, 1961:25). Expectancy-Value Theory and Attribution Theory also form the theoretical basis of the motivational variables which can be used in interpreting the complicated motivational activities of individuals. Various studies have proven that motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning, but there has always been an argument if motivation is the cause or the result of successful second/ foreign language learning.Given such consideration, and based on the former researches, an experimental study aimed to investigate practical classroom activity to raise poor autonomous language learners' motivation, subsequently boost their learner autonomy, and hence increase the effectiveness of SALL was conducted.Forty poor learners of EFL (those who failed to pass English test of the College Entrance Examination, College Placement Test and the final examination in the first semester) participated in the experiment. They were assigned to either a control group receiving traditional examination (norm-referenced assessment) or an experimental group receiving criterion-referenced assessments during their SALL. A...