A Study Of Language Learning Motivation And Strategy Use Of Chinese Vocational College Students

With the advances in general linguistics, psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology, emphasis of the researches in second language acquisition has shifted from teaching methods, which used to be dominant in that field, to individual differences of language learners. That is to say, language learners have become the center of language teaching and learning. Individual differences of language learners take more responsibility for their final achievements. As to language learners, many factors affect their language learning process such as gender, age, motivation, individual background, and learning strategies. Among these individual differences, language learning motivation and language learning strategies are two main research topics. A large number of studies have been done respectively on them. Second language learners' motivations have been claimed in research and theories to be a crucial factor in influencing the achievement or the proficiency level of the L2 learning. Except for motivation, L2 learners' learning strategies are also critical toward second language learning.In recent years, with the development of higher education, vocational colleges have mushroomed in China. The group of vocational college students expands quickly and vocational education becomes more and more popular and important. To a certain extent, vocational college students are different from those in common colleges and universities in many aspects concerning vocational education environment, vocational education goals and students' past learning experience and social image. Due to lack of teaching experience and deep understanding of the characteristics of vocational college students, English teaching is not effective and satisfactory in vocational colleges. It is necessary to find a solution to solve the problem in English teaching and learning in the area of vocational education.Given such situation, the author makes the exploratory study among 160 non-English-major sophomores in vocational colleges by exploring their English learning motivation, and employment of English learning strategies. The study aims to understand the theoretical basis of language learning motivation and strategies, to identify types of language learning motivation and strategy use of Chinese vocational college students, and to analyze the differences between high achievers and low achievers in language learning strategy employment. It is anticipated to gain some enlightenment for our teaching and learning activities and eventually improve the language achievements of vocational college students.In this study, Gao Yihong's (2003) Motivation Type Scale and Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL Version 7.0 ESL/EFL) are administered as measurements of vocational college students' characteristics in English learning motivation and English learning strategy employment. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 13.0) is used for statistical calculation.With data collected from the two questionnaires and PRETCO (Practical English Test for Colleges) scores, the results of the study indicate that Chinese vocational college students have three types of motivations-instrumental motivation, cultural motivation and situational motivation-which can be further divided into internal interest, social responsibility, going abroad, individual development, achievement, information media, and learning situation. According to the rank order of the mean scores, the statistics show that students are more instrumentally motivated. In terms of employment of learning strategies, the participants are moderate users of six categories of learning strategies. Compensation strategies are the most frequently used strategies and social strategies are the least. With regard to the strategy employment of high and low achievers, both of the groups tend to employ compensation strategies; high achievers use memory strategies least while low achievers use social strategies least.The value of the studies lies in their pedagogical implications. Findings of this study may provide teachers with a better understanding of the Chinese vocational college students with regard to their English learning motivation and strategy employment, and help them improve teaching practice to form more active and effective learning among students.This study implies that it is important to enhance English-related values and promote students' learning attitudes, increase students' self-confidence, and guide the students to set appropriate goals. In addition to the necessity of strategy training, it is urgent to create a relaxed atmosphere in English classroom and make the learning materials relevant for the vocational college students.