College Non-English Major's English Learning Motivation, Self-regulation And Learner Autonomy

At the present time, with the rapid development of knowledge renovation and enlargement of communication, the issue of English education has attracted increasingly attention. In recent years, with the issue of the College English Curriculum Requirement, more and more English teachers have realised the importance of cultivating students' autonomous learning ability. The traditional teaching approach, which is the teacher-centered approach, has been replaced by the student-centered approach. Since the concept of learner autonomy was proposed by Holec in the year 1982, many researches at home and abroad have been carried out. Among the factors that influence learner autonomy, motivation and self-regulation are two important ones. The research of college students' motivation, self-regulation and learner autonomy has great significance in knowing the English learning situation of college students.This paper first reviews the literature about motivation, self-regulation and learner autonomy. This paper uses questionnaire as the main tool to measure the motivation, self-regulation and learner autonomy of the freshmen of non-English majors in a key university in Shanghai for the following three purposes: 1) To know the characteristics of motivation, self-regulation and learner autonomy in their English learning. 2) To know whether there are any differences among students of different genders, family backgrounds and academic specialisation. 3) To know the relationship between students' motivation, self-regulation and learner autonomy. The results of the research were analysed by SPSS 17.0 using Descriptive Statistics, Independent-Samples T-test, One-way ANOVA and Bivariate Correlation. The results are shown as follows: First, on the whole, college students have strong English learning motivation, while their self-regulation is not quite satisfactory. In motivation, parental encouragement and international orientation rank the highest, while motivational intensity and self-efficacy ranks the lowest. As for self-regulation, commitment and metacognitive control ranks the highest, while the emotion control ranks the lowest. In learner autonomy, classroom-based approaches ranks the highest, while learner-based approaches ranks the lowest.Second, as for motivation and self-regulation, gender is not a determining factor. However, family background and academic specialisation may lead to significant differences among different groups. To be specific, students coming from big cities differ significantly from students from the countryside, and social science majors differ significantly from science majors in motivation and self-regulation. As for learner autonomy, gender is also not a determining factor. Family background and academic specialisation also lead to significant differences, but the differences are different from the results of motivation and self-regulation. Students coming from big cities differ significant with students from middle-sized cities or towns and the countryside, and social science major differ significantly from science and engineering majors.Third, motivation, self-regulation and learner autonomy has strong relationship with each other.Based on the research above, this paper finally gives some suggestions for future English teaching in college. Teachers should change the traditional teaching approach as soon as possible, provide students with more chances to do autonomous learning, reduce students' pressure and help them build confidence in English learning.