A Surveof Learning Motivation And Self-identit Changes Of English Major Students In Independent Colleges

As one of the most influential factors among individual and psychological differences,motivation plays a vital role in language learning. The social psychological model dividedlearning outcome into two types: linguistic and nonlinguistic. The former included languageknowledge, skills while the latter referred to self-identity changes involving the acceptance ofnew cultural values, behavioral patterns and the recognition of personal identity. Although GaoYihong and her research group committed themselves into studying motivation and the influenceof English learning on self-identity changes, they mainly focused on undergraduates andpostgraduates of higher educational institutions. Researches concerning motivation andself-identity changes of independent college students are comparatively little. Therefore,quantitative and qualitative methods were performed in this study in order to investigatemotivation and self-identity changes of English major students in independent college. On thebasis of previous researches, this study explored a comparatively new research object andadopted qualitative and quantitative methods in the hope of getting a whole picture of Englishmajor students’ motivation and self-identity changes, which further enriched relevant researchesand provided some pedagogical implications for independent college.Gao Yihong’s questionnaire of “The Social Psychology of English Learning by ChineseCollege Students—Motivation and learners’ self-identities (2004)” was revised in this research.This study tested360students and interviewed a random sample of12students from oneindependent college in Shandong province.65questions concerning motivation types,motivational intensity and self-identity changes were included in the questionnaire. Thequestionnaire data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS17.0).Meanwhile, the interviews were transcribed and analyzed.The results are as follows:(1) seven learning motivation types were found among Englishmajor students in independent college: intrinsic interest, immediate achievement, informationmedium, going abroad, social responsibility, individual development and learning situation.(2)Learners experienced different types of self-identity changes after learning English. The greatestchange took place in self-confidence, which reflected traits of learners who learn English fromadolescence under EFL context. Second were productive change and additive change, whichindicated that productive change is not limited to best language learners and is common amonglanguage learners. The third was zero change. The last were subtractive change and split change,which indicated that these two negative changes are not the general trend.(3) Motivationintensity was correlated to self-identity changes. Students with high motivational intensity weremore likely to learn English because of their intrinsic interest while those with low motivational intensity mostly learned English for external demand or immediate achievement.(4) Motivationtypes were correlated to self-identity changes through potential canonical variables. The mostprominent correlation was found between intrinsic interest and productive change andself-confidence. The second correlation was found between individual development andself-confidence change.Meanwhile, this study also had some limitations, which provided some insights for futurestudy. The study only chose one independent college and the sample size was small. Theinterview only represented opinions and attitudes of certain students, which could not stand forthe overall situation of independent college students. Further studies could be based upon a largenumber of samples or adopt more comprehensive research methods.