Motivations In Developing Interlanguage Talk: A Study Of Chinese University English Majors

Motivation in second language has been focused by academic circles for a long time, which is not only the most initiative factor among individual differences, but the most variable to restrict second language learners'achievement. Although the motivation research has made great progress during the past twenty years, the researches on motivation to develop competence of interlanguage talk are far less to meet the need of second or foreign language teaching and learning. Thus, this thesis to improve oral English competence presents the study of motivation to develop interlanguage talk. It implements questionnaire and interview to one hundred and forty five university English majors from motivation orientation, desire, attitude and effort in terms of Gardner's Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) (1985). And then it analyzes and discusses the data by the latest SPSS (15.0), which demonstrates the thesis hypotheses positively: university English majors are motivated to develop their English competence in interlanguage talk and they are or more intrinsically motivated than extrinsically motivated. Besides, the survey reaches the conclusion that the correlation between the motivation and English competence in interlanguage talk is positive through analyzing the correlation among motivational factors. And another inference can be drawn from the study that interlanguage talk is an effective way to improve oral English and English learning achievement. What's more, the research on motivation to develop interlanguage talk is significant in linguistic pedagogy that enlightens the oral teachers to instruct the learners to master second language with correct strategy.