ESP Learning Motivation: A Study On Non-English-Major Undergraduates

Motivation is one of the crucial learner factors affecting foreign language learning and therefore has been abundantly explored in the field of English as foreign language teaching (EFT) and English as foreign language learning (EFL). Researches on EFT and EFL motivation were initiated by Canadian psychologists, Gardner and Lambert, in 1950s. In China, relevant researches could be dated back to 1980s. Among those researches, many were mainly concerned with motivation students have in learning fundamental College English (Wen Qiufang and Wang Haixiao, 1996; Gao Yihong, 2003a), few researchers have directed their attention to motivation students tend to carry in the course of learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The lack of researches in this regard has mismatched the fact that there's huge demand of talents equipped with both special knowledge and corresponding English ability in China as the nation has witnessed unprecedented growth in communications with other countries in the field of economy, technology, culture and science. In view of that, the writer of this thesis carried out a study on motivation of Chinese non-English-major undergraduates learning ESP through a questionnaire administered to 160 non-English-major undergraduates from Zhongyuan Institute of Technology in Henan Province. The emphasis of the current research is on the investigation of the motivational types of ESP learning and factors affecting the motivation thereof.The results of the study show: 1) there exist six major types of motivation the students investigated in this study have when they are learning ESP. They're information medium motivation, individual development motivation, learning situational motivation, intrinsic motivation, going abroad motivation and examination motivation, among which information medium motivation stands out as the most important motivation driving students to learn ESP. 2) Students from different majors, grades and levels of English proficiency showed different pattern of motivation types. 3) Through analyzing data got from the questionnaire, the author divided the factors affecting students'ESP learning motivation into internal factors and external factors. The internal factors include learners'expectancy, learners'needs and learners'autonomy, while the external factors consist of teaching materials, teaching methods, learning environment and evaluation. On the basis of the study, the writer of this thesis put forward several pedagogical suggestions that could be used by teachers to stimulate students'motivation on ESP learning.