A Study Of Chinese Postgraduate Students’ Motivations To English Learning In The UK

Most researches in the field of foreign language learning agree that motivation is akey factor to successful language learning (Ellis,1994). Some students with strongmotivation will learn a foreign language actively and achieve greate success. As studyingin the UK from2012to2013, the writer hypothesized that Chinese postgraduate studentsEnglish learning motivation would be improved when they are in the English-speakingcountry. However, by observing many Chinese postgraduate students English learningsituation in the UK, it was easily found that Chinese students lack enthusiasm for Englishlearning compared with the students from other countries. Chinese overseas students’attitudes and motivations do not improve much. Literature about Chinese students’English learning situation shows that most of Chinese students lack English learningmotivation. They are even not clear about their English learning motivations. So thisthesis is expected to answer the following questions,(1) What types of motivation do Chinese overseas postgraduate students have forEnglish learning?(2) What are the reasons for Chinese overseas postgraduates having that kind ofmotivation?This thesis first reviews previous studies of motivation theories in foreign languageresearch. It mainly focuses on two dimensions: integrative-instrumental motivation andintrinsic-extrinsic motivation (e.g. Gardner and Lambert1985, Deci,1975). Ten Chinesepostgraduate students who study in the UK are selected as the research subjects. Interviewis adopted in this study which aims to give the answers to the research questions discussedabove.The major findings of this study are as follows:(1) The basic types of interviewedlearners’ motivations are instrumental motivation and extrinsic motivation.(2) Learners’strong extrinsic factors make them losing interests in English learning. Traditionalteacher-centered English teaching methods and English as always the compulsory subjectmake the learners negative and passive attitudes to English learning and lack Englishlearning motivation.Some applications for teachers in English teaching, firstly, teachers shouldunderstand the Chinese students English learning motivation and help them set reasonablegoals so as to develop their positive attitudes. Secondly, encouraging students tointercultural academic communication is also essential to Chinese overseas postgraduatestudents. Even though the limitation in the relatively small sphere of samples, it still can be areference sample for further studies about Chinese overseas students and practicalstrategies for teaching.