An Empirical Study On Nursing Major Students’ External English Learning Motivation In Vocational College

The vocational college education for nursing major students is significant for trainingrelatively qualified nurses to meet the needs of the society. As far as nursing major students invocational college are concerned, their English achievement is generally poor due to lack oflearning motivation. While learning English, most of them usually rely on teachers, teachingmaterials, tasks and so on. They are greatly affected by the external factors.In addition, although some researchers have explored the types of external motivation,little attention has been paid to the internal structure of external motivation, that is, thecomponents of external motivation.Therefore, this paper will explore the function of external motivation factors on theefficiency of English learning for nursing major students in vocational college on the basis ofthe social constructivism model of motivation developed by Lu Min and other relatedmotivation theories. The three key external motivation factors including teacher’s role, taskand classroom structure will be explored. Moreover, the classroom context is stressed, sincethese students’ English learning is mainly carried out in the classroom.The present research lasts nearly four months, from September,2011to January,2012.And the subjects are120nursing major students in Shijiazhuang Jilian Medical College.During the research, the author of the paper employs such instruments, includingquestionnaire, interview, classroom experiment and tests. The data resulted from the researchis processed by the SPSS16.0and the Excel software for the preparation of further analysis.The result shows the important function of three key external motivations, whichincludes teacher’s role, task and classroom structure. They play a positive role in helpingnursing major students improve their English proficiency in vocational college. Moreover, thethree external motivations can promote the nursing major students’ autonomous awareness ofEnglish learning.According to the research, suggestions are given to English teachers in vocationalcollege. That is, these English teachers should conduct teaching integrating with externalmotivation factors. And it is necessary for them to investigate students’ motivation during teaching. It aims to stimulate students’ English learning, and ultimately promote students’English achievements.