A Survey On Motivation And Implication Of English Teaching For Adult Learners Of Non-English Majors

English learning results from certain motivation. If we have a basic understanding of the strength and types of the adult learners' English learning motivation, it will be useful for English teachers to adjust the teaching behavior in order to foster and adjust the adult learners' motivation, In the early work of Gardner and Lambert (1972), motivation was seen to be divided into two very general orientations: integrative and instrumental. Motivation can also be classified into "Intrinsic motivation" and "Extrinsic motivation" according to some educational psychologists. There are some other theories of motivation including: Expectancy-value Theories, Goal theory, Self-efficacy Theory, Attribution Theory.Generally speaking, adult learners of Non-English majors are all special learners. They are different from other learners. Their English level is low and some of them dislike learning English. Based on the saying 'Motivation is the key to all learning', it is necessary to investigate English learning motivation of adult learners to better their English study. Because of the existing motivational problems in English teaching and learning, and of the present situation of motivation researches, this thesis intends to study and analyze the reason that most of the adult learners have no motivation and seeks for theteaching strategies to motivate the adult learners. This thesis presents the motivationtheories and their implications in language teaching, studies the motivational factors andputs forward some motivational strategies. In Chapter three there is a quantitative surveythat was made by the writer with the aim of identifying the adult learners' motivation andmotivational factors, especially the factors that are related to the teachers' behaviors andthe learning environment. In Chapter four statistical methods are employed to analyze datafrom questionnaires on motivation factors that affect English study of adult learners. Wefind that adult learners have their particular characteristics of motivation. Adult learners'low level of English mainly results from their inadequate efforts and others factors whichhave resulted from their low motivation. With the consideration of the subjectivity of thesubjects' self-report data, the interview is employed to obtain in-depth information onadult learners' motivation problem. Therefore, both quantitative and qualitative researchmethods are used in the survey as both of them are complementary to each other.The analysis of the collected data shows that the teachers' behaviors have a close relationship with the adult learners' motivation to learn. Based on the analysis of motivation theories, the findings of the survey and personal teaching practices, some motivational strategies are put forward to initiate, increase and sustain adult learners' motivation to learn in, which is of great practical significance. Owing to the limitation in the relatively narrow sphere of the samples, further studies in the motivational factors and motivational strategies should be conducted.