Survey On English Learning Motivation For Non-English Majors From Poor-and-ethnic Areas

Motivation has long been regarded as one of the significant factor to affect learning in EFL which directly influences students English learning attitude, mode and behavior. The thesis explored the English learning features, motivation types and intensity of the non-English majors from poor-and-ethnic areas by conducting105non-English majors from Ningxia (area of this kind) questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and educational action research qualitatively and quantitatively through SPSS13.0statistical analysis, based on the literature reviews of the motivation studies in EFL both home and abroad. The results are:The instrumental motivations of the subjects are seemingly higher than integrated motivations. Their motivations in personal development are higher than those in social responsibilities, but their motivations on constructing the country are higher than those on building up hometown. Their motivations in information medium are lower and motivations in going abroad and academic research are very lower. Emotional and resultative motivation are two new types discovered in this area. Self-confidence affects emotional motivation most. Resultative motivation is positively related to the sustaining and expecting of intrinsic motivation behavior. Their motivation presuppositions and levels are comparatively higher, and they attribute failure to internal factors rather than external factors, which is in confliction with the previous studies. This is possibly because the lack of variety in teaching and learning methods and ways has decreased their English learning interests. Furthermore, owing to their realization of the extreme importance of National Entrance Examination for Colleges in China and the positive ratio between effort and sores they got in the test, they would rather reflect reasons of their own in the face of learning failures.Finally, the author put forward some suggested strategies on promoting students motivation based on the generalization of his own classroom action researches. They are:promoting self-efficacy; increasing goal-orientedness; improving teaching methods; creating learners autonomy; and promoting self-motivate strategies.