A Study Of English Learning Motivation Of College Students And Their Achievement In Terms Of Gender Role

Motivation has been viewed as one of the key factors that influence the success of second /foreign language learning. A great deal of research has been carried out regarding L2 motivation at home and abroad during the past several decades. Nevertheless, there has been relatively little research conducted to explore the influence gender role exerts on L2 motivation. Lacking understanding of students' traits, teachers can not make proper explanation for learning behaviors of students so that they are limited to stimulating learners' interest in English.In order to have an understanding of whether difference exists in motivation types and motivation intensity among gender role identities, find out the influence traits of gender role identity and motivation exert on achievement, offer some tentative suggestions to facilitate instructors' stimulating learners' interest in English and improving achievement, the author has adopted two questionnaires to investigate 198 freshmen from three universities in Xi'an. With the help of SPSS 13.0, Homogeneity of Variances and One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) Test are adopted to examine whether variances are homogeneous and distribution of original data is normal. MANOVA and K-Independent Sample Test are employed to contrast the difference in seven motivation types and motivation intensity among seven gender role identities. Qualitative method is used to examine the influence the difference exerts on achievement.The major findings include the three following aspects: 1) 198 subjects are divided into seven gender role identities. Androgynous students account for 51% while undifferentiated group only cover 2.5%. The distribution between F~+ and F~- is different from that of previous studies. 2) other five gender role identities intersect in the differences in internal interest, going abroad, social responsibility, and information media except M~-and undifferentiated group. 3) A~+ and F~+ demonstrate stronger motivation intensity than F~-and undifferentiated group respectively.The conclusion of the present study involves two aspects: 1) gender role identities are arranged in order of decreased progressive achievement: A~+, A~-, M~+, F~+, F~-. 2) A~+ are integratively motivated and also make greater effort to English learning. They acquire the best achievement and are considered as the most desirable gender role identity while F~-lack integrative motivation and demonstrate weaker instrumental motivation, and take much less effort to English learning and acquire the worst achievement.