Motivational Differences Between First-year And Third-year College Students

The present study sought to investigate college non-English majors' motivation and how it changes by comparing the first-year and third-year students. Noels et al's L2 self-determination motivation theory was used to develop an instrument to measure the motivation and its possible change. Self-determination motivation was further divided into seven categories from amotivation to extrinsic motivation and to intrinsic motivation. For its validation and a richer picture of student motivation, the instrument also includes two measurements developed respectively from Bandura's self-efficacy theory and Gardner's motivational intensity concept. A total of 335 non-English majors in a medical college were surveyed. At first, 117 students participated into the pilot study, which aimed to validate the instrument and the self-determination theory in the research context. Another 218 students were the subjects of the final survey.In the pilot study, students' motivation was found to fit into the seven categories of self-determination motivation continuum, ranging from no motivation to less self-determined extrinsic motivation and to more self-determined intrinsic motivation.The final study found that the college students exhibit very high motivation, and the prominent sources of motivation came from outside the learners themselves, such as the pressure caused by exams, future careers and social expectations. The findings of the study also indicate that more proficient students have better internalized motivation orientations than the less proficient students. When comparing the motivation between the first-year and third-year students, the study found that the middle-proficiency students' amotivation in Grade 3 is higher, and the motivation intensity is lower than those of the first-year students. Both differences of these two indexes reach significant level statistically. On the other hand, students intrinsic motivation is not different significantly. From these differences of motivation in the two groups, the author argues that two-year college English learning experience has not significantly promoted the non-English majors' motivation...