Listening Motivation And Its Relationship With Listening Behavior And CET 4 Listening Score

Research both abroad and at home has consistently confirmed that motivation is one of the key factors influencing second language acquisition. However, these studies mainly focused on domain-general motivation while domain-specific motivation was little involved, especially listening motivation. The present study chose 351 non-English-major sophomores as the participants. Based on examining the dimensionality of College English listening motivation and listening behavior, the present study mainly explored the relationships and gender differences among listening motivation, listening behavior and CET 4 listening score.The present study is mainly quantitative in nature, and complemented by qualitative data. Non-English Majors' College English Listening Learning Questionnaire was used to measure the relationships and gender differences among listening motivation, listening behavior and CET 4 listening score. Then two students who scored the highest and the lowest in the listening motivation scale and their teachers were interviewed according to the interview schedule. The contents and results of interview serve as the supplement for the quantitative research.All the quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS 11.5. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the current situation of students' listening motivation and behavior; exploratory factor analysis was employed to explore the dimensions of listening motivation and listening behavior; Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the relationships among English listening motivation, listening behavior and CET 4 listening score; Regression analysis was employed to examine the prediction of the dimensions of listening motivation and listening behavior for CET 4 listening score; and Independent Samples T-test was used to probe the gender differences among listening motivation, listening behavior and CET 4 listening score. The research results are presented as follows:1) Results of descriptive statistics showed that both students' listening motivation and listening behavior were at a medium level.2) According to factor analysis, the multi-dimension of listening motivation is again verified in present study. Nine factors were extracted from listening motivation and respectively named as competence, going abroad, interest, determination, employment, examination, atmosphere, self-efficacy and avoidance. In addition, four factors were extracted from listening behavior and named as attention, persistence, initiative and endeavor.3) Pearson correlation analyses indicated that listening motivation and listening behavior correlates significantly and positively; listening motivation, rather than listening behavior, had a significant positive correlation with CET 4 listening score. Self-efficacy, determination, competition, interest and avoidance significantly correlated with CET 4 listening score. Except for the competition, all the other dimensions of listening motivation correlated significantly and positively with listening behavior. In addition, four dimensions {endeavor, attention, persistence, and initiative) of listening behavior correlated significantly and positively with listening motivation. Initiative and endeavor had a significant positive correlation with CET 4 listening score.Regression analyses revealed that self-efficacy and determination and initiative were significant predicators of CET4 listening score while atmosphere, avoidance, determination, going abroad and competition were more powerful in explaining listening behavior. Finally, initiative and endeavor were more powerful in explaining listening motivation.4) Independent samples T-test showed that the gender differences were significant in both listening motivation and CET 4 listening score, with female higher than male; but the gender differences were not significant in listening behavior.