A Study On English Learning Motivational Components And Individual Characteristics Of Higher Technical And Vocational College Student

Motivation is a significant part in L2/FL learning, and it has always been a focus on the part of research on L2/FL acquisition. Most prior studies on the role of motivation follow Gardner’s Socio-Educational Model and its expansions. Since1990s, researchers have been aware of the complicated, multi-faceted, dynamic nature of motivation and called for motivation research from new perspectives. With the advances in general linguistics, psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology, research focus in second language acquisition has shifted from teaching to learning. Namely, language learners have become the center of language teaching and learning and are more responsible for their final achievements. China witnessed the ups and downs of research on FL learning motivation in the past25years or so. Most of the researches focus on model building and the influence of motivation intensity (effort) on language proficiency, and much attention should be given to individual characteristics (age, sex, school, family background, etc.) which are thought to affect motivational components. Moreover, though a number of researches have been done on FL learning motivation of comprehensive university students whether they are English majors or not, learners from higher technical and vocational colleges are seldom at the center of the stage though they are a special learning group with many personal and learning characteristics. Generally, higher technical and vocational college students have different learning environment, goals of study, past learning experience from those students who are admitted by comprehensive universities and colleges. Besides, most higher technical and vocational college students lack motivation in learning English, and English teaching there is not effective and satisfactory.In order to find a solution to the embarrassing situation, the author conducted a research among173students from three higher technical and vocational colleges in Shandong province:Shandong Medical College (SDMC), Shandong Business Institute (SDBI), and Shandong Institute of Commerce and Technology (SDICT). The study followed the Structural Framework of English Learning Motivation proposed by Huang& Wen and used the modified questionnaire of Huang&Wen’s to get the motivation profile of higher technical and vocational college students. The statistical analysis employed are descriptive statistics, ANOVA, t-test and correlation by SPSS.The research shows that among the nine factors,"Language valence" is the most influential motivational factors for higher technical and vocational college students. Of the four levels of motivation, students are better motivated at the Social Environmental level and less influenced by the Learning Situational factors. Secondly, there is a significant relationship between English learning motivational components and the individual characteristics of higher technical and vocational college students. School, family background, proficiency level, starting age for learner, grade have significant influence on motivational components. Finally,"Language valence" is significantly correlated with students’"Culture learning" and "Self-efficacy";"Teacher/Course evaluation" has significant correlation with "Personality" and "Social requirements".The value of the research lies in the pedagogical implications. Findings of the study may provide teachers with a better understanding of the higher technical and vocational college students with regard to their English learning motivational components.