A Study On The Correlation Between Non-English Majors' Learning Motivation And Their Performance On English Reading Comprehension Test

In the past few decades, there has been a growing interest in learners' motivation in the fields of L2 learning and teaching. A number of studies have reported that motivation was one of the major determining factors in success in developing a second or foreign language.The purpose of this study was to carry out a correlative research on language learning motivation in English reading. Based on Krashen's input and affective filter hypothesis and Gardner's Integrative and Instrumental Motivation theory, this study investigated the kinds of the motivation held by non-English majors in Qinghai University and the correlation between their motivation in English reading and reading proficiency. A total number of 107 students participated in the study. A questionnaire designed on the basis of The Attitude/Motivation Test Battery or AMTB (Gardner 1985) and Qin Xiaoqing's learning motivation questionnaire (2007) and two CET- 4 papers were utilized to collect data. The SPSS 11.0 for windows was administered to compute the collected data. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, were used to analyze the data. The research findings are as follows:First, the majority of students have strong motivation in English reading.Second, the students who have lower reading proficiency hold higher instrumental motivation than that of students who have higher reading proficiency; while the students who have higher reading proficiency hold higher integrative motivation than that of students with lower reading proficiency.Third, there is significant correlation between students' motivation in English reading and their reading proficiency.This thesis is composed of seven chapters. The first chapter gave an introduction to the background, purpose and significance of the study. Chapter two reviewed firstly the previous achievement of the research and then introduces some prevailing studies on reading comprehension. Chapter three outlined the theoretical bases for this study. Chapter four introduced the methodology of the present study, including research questions, subjects, instruments, method and procedure, etc. The fifth Chapter elaborated on data collection and analysis. In the sixth chapter, discussion was made on the results of analysis. In the last part of the thesis, the major findings of the present study were illustrated.In the end, the author gives several suggestions about English teaching of Qinghai University: 1) it is important to strengthen learners' learning motivation in English reading; 2) it is a main way to develop learners' integrative motivation in English reading. Hopefully this study could provide some first hand research material for people who are interested in the research of language learning motivation in English reading, and may stimulate researchers deep insight into further study as well.