A Study Of The Correlation Between College Students’ English Learning Motivation And Vocabulary Learning Achievement

With the rapid process of the globalization, English learning has achievedunprecedented promotion. The learners’ individual differences, a key element for theEnglish learning, has aroused many linguists attention as well as the learners concern.Numerous researches on the learning motivation have been carried out by researchersdomestic and abroad. However, not much work has been done with respect to therelationship between English learning motivation and learning achievement of anindividual language skill such as the relationship between English learning motivation andvocabulary learning achievement.Having employed an English learning motivation questionnaire and two test papers,together with an interview and daily observation scheme, this thesis explores the situationof the Chinese non-English majors’ English learning motivation (ELM), their Vocabularylearning achievement (VLA). at the size and the depth of the vocabulary knowledge, thecorrelation between the ELM and VLA, and the gender difference on motivation as well.(1) What are the features of ELM of the non-English majors under investigation?(2) What is the vocabulary learning achievement of the non-English majors underinvestigation?(3) What is the correlation between ELM and VLA?80non-English majors at the second semester from Jilin University involved in thisresearch. They took a questionnaire on ELM and two vocabulary test papers: VLT andDVK. The data analyses were conducted with the assistance of the software SPSS11.5,which leads to the following results:In general the college non-English majors were moderately motivated as to theEnglish learning. And among the three types of the ELM, instrumental motivation was the strongest. The rank order of the seven English learning motivation factors was differentfrom Gao s research finding.And the gender difference on motivation was not significant.Then it revealed that the subjects vocabulary achievement is not as high as they haveimagined. But the female students are better than male students at this point.Moreover the VLA was closely related to the ELM, among which cultural motivationpositively correlated with the general VLA. The high score group share much strongercultural motivation than the low score group, while the low score group held strongerinstrumental motivation, and it can be more easily affected by the learning situations.So it is of great importance to cultivate the students cultural motivation. This researchhas made several recommendations as follows:(1) Teachers should inspire students cultural motivation toward English learningwith the role of culture courier.(2) Teachers should maintain the students cultural motivation and increase theirsituational motivation with the role of successful class organizer.(3) Teachers should increase and internalize students instrumental motivationwith the role of appreciator.(4) The English learners should autonomously control their learning behavior andbe self-motivated.(5) The English learners should be encouraged to learn from the successfulvocabulary learners(6) The English learners should exchange learning experience, as well as adopteffective learning strategies.