Relationships Among English Learning Motivation, Vocabulary Learning Strategies And Depth Of Vocabulary Knowledge

This thesis explores the relationships among English learning motivation, vocabulary learning strategies and depth of vocabulary knowledge by the investigation into the Chinese EFL learners'motivation, use of vocabulary learning strategies and their level of depth of vocabulary knowledge. The present study relates motivation to second language vocabulary learning, and brings out three general research questions:Research question 1: What is the relationship between different types of motivation and the learners' vocabulary learning strategy use?Research question 2: What is the relationship between different types of motivation and the learners' level of depth of vocabulary knowledge?Research question 3: What is the relationship between the learners' vocabulary learning strategy use and their level of depth of vocabulary knowledge?The present study is a cross-sectional research. The subjects were 52 second year non-English majors, and the instruments were a motivation questionnaire, a vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire and a depth of vocabulary knowledge test, which were used to investigate their English learning motivation, use of vocabulary strategies and level of depth of vocabulary knowledge. All the data collected were input to the SPSS. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were conducted. According to the results, the present study has the following findings:First, EFL learners were more strongly motivated by extrinsic motivation than intrinsic motivation.Within extrinsic motivation,individualdevelopment motivation was the strongest motivators, followed by score-oriented motivation.Second, EFL learners used cognitive strategies more frequently than meta-cognitive strategies. Repetition was used most frequently. Other strategies such as using references, guessing, dictionary, and note taking were also used frequently. While some meta-cognitive strategies like planning, reviewing, and practice strategy were used less frequently.Third, EFL learners'level of depth of vocabulary knowledge was not high.Fourth, external requirements motivation and scores oriented motivation correlate negatively with most of the vocabulary learning strategies, but positively correlate with the repetition strategy. On the contrary, intrinsic interest motivation correlates positively with most of the strategies, but negatively correlates with the repetition strategy.Fifth, external requirements motivation and score-oriented motivation correlate negatively with depth of vocabulary knowledge; other types of motivation all correlate positively with it, among which the intrinsic motivation correlates with it comparatively higher. However, all the correlations are not high and significant.Sixth, among all the vocabulary learning strategies, reviewing and testing, dictionary, note taking and practice strategies have significant positive correlations with depth of vocabulary knowledge, while repetition has negative correlation with it.Based on the above findings, the author gets some conclusions:First, Chinese EFL learners are more motivated by extrinsic motivation.Second, Chinese EFL learners use more cognitive strategies in vocabulary learning, and repetition strategy is used most frequently.Third, Chinese EFL learners do not pay much attention to the improvement of depth of vocabulary knowledge.Fourth, external requirements motivation and score-oriented motivation may have negative influence on the use of vocabulary learning strategies and the depth of vocabulary knowledge, while intrinsic motivation may have positive influence on them.Fifth, strategies of reviewing and testing, guessing, dictionary, note-taking and association may have positive effect on the depth of vocabulary knowledge, while repetition strategy may have negative effect on it.Finally, several pedagogical implications of the present study are brought out, including the implications for the promotion of English learning motivation and vocabulary teaching and learning.