A Study Of The Relationship Between English Learning Motivation And Learner Autonomy Of Non-English Majors

Learner autonomy has been the topic of interest in modern language teaching both at home and aboard. Researches on learner autonomy began in1980s. Learner autonomy has become one of the indispensible teaching aims in college English since the College English Curriculum Requirements was put into effect. Fostering students' autonomous learning ability has been regarded as the main task of college English teaching. However, most scholars'studies focus on the definition and the necessity of autonomy. And empirical study from the personality factors, especially motivation is relatively few. So this thesis regards motivation as one of the key factors which influences learner autonomy, then probes into the relationship between motivation and autonomy by gathering that data from the questionnaires which were finished by freshmen from two universities in Xi'an, namely Xi'an International Studies University and Xi'an Peihua University.The data is processed by independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation, and linear regression analysis. According to the results, the overall English learning motivation of non-English major students is on the medium level. And the mean score of the high-score group is higher than low-score group. However, by the employment of the independent samples t-test, it can be found that the differences between high-score group and low-score group reach the significant level only on amotivation. Furthermore, the students'autonomous ability is on the medium level also. According to the results of independent samples t-test, the mean scores of high-score group are significantly higher than the low-score group on the five parts.In general, the students'self-determined motivation is significantly correlated with learner autonomy. In the linear regression analysis only three factors (intrinsic motivation-accomplishment, knowledge, and amotivation) entered. It represents that the three variables could explain28.7%of the variance of the dependent variable.At last, the author analyses the results of the questionnaires and interviews. Then implications for cultivating students' motivation, fostering students' autonomous learning ability and correlating the motivation with learner autonomy are presented. Finally, limitations of this study and suggestions for future study are provided.