A Study On Chinese EFL Learners' Learning Motivation

As one of the most important affective factors in English learning, motivation has great influences on both the learning process and result. Gardner and Lambert (1959) pioneer in the study of motivation in second language acquisition, and propose a socio-educational model, which affects many subsequent related researches to a large extent. Since the 1990s, many more investigations have been carried out in behavioral, cognitive and social constructivist perspectives, which further promote the studies on motivation. With reference to western motivational theories, more and more researches have been implemented to investigate English learning motivation in the Chinese context.Although there have been considerable surveys and studies related to motivation in second language acquisition, almost no empirical researches on the types of English learning motivation and their relationship to learners'achievements in the special context of non-state colleges in China. With the development of non-state colleges since the 1990s, such colleges have promoted college education in China. But they have their own unique features. The thesis is to make an investigation in this area, hoping that the results will be helpful to non-English major students in non-state colleges.In order to fulfill the research purpose, the author has conducted a survey among 80 non-English majors from Hang Kong Gang Campus of Sichuan Normal University by means of a questionnaire to explore their motivation in English learning. The questionnaire was designed according to Gardner's Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB), but some items have been changed to suit the particular situation under this research. The statistical analyses employed are descriptive statistics using the analyzing tool package SPSS 12.0.The study results show that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are the types of motivation of non-English majors in non-state college, but the intrinsic motivation is less obvious than the extrinsic. Although some students do have intrinsic motivation, the level of influence is rather low. The extrinsic motivation has three tendencies: passing exams, obtaining college diploma and getting a good job. However, as to the relationships between these types of motivation and students'achievements, the intrinsic motivation appears to have influence on some high-achievers to some extent.In the light of this study, the thesis provides some suggestions for stimulating the learners'motivation through teachers'mediation, such as teaching in accordance with students'aptitudes, arousing students'intrinsic motivation in English learning, constructing self-efficacy, helping students set proper goals, creating a good classroom environment, giving immediate feedback, and instructing them to attribute test scores properly.