A Study Of The Corerlation Between English Learning Moitvation And Self-identify Changes Of Non-English-major Graduate Students

As one of the vital affective factors of foreign language learning, motivation hasbeen given a great deal of attention by researchers at home and abroad since1980s.According to previous studies, different types of motivation and the degree of effortsone exerts to English study can bring about different learning outcomes. However,these studies focus more on the effect of motivation on the linguistic outcomes oflanguage learning indicated by test scores. Besides, previous studies pay closeattention to the kind of motivation leading to higher test score, but the effect ofmotivation on the non-linguistic outcomes of language learning is neglected.Self-identity change, as one of the non-linguistic outcomes of language learning,has been the spotlight in the eyes of western scholars in the1980s. But it is in the pastdecades that self-identity change has been paid much attention to and the researchesseem far from enough. Few researches so far have been conducted to investigate thecorrelation between foreign language learner’s learning motivation and self-identitychanges. Moreover, most of the participants involved in previous studies are collegestudents. Graduate students, especially non-English-major graduate students areneglected. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to explore the non-English-majorgraduate students’ motivation (motivation types and motivational intensity) andself-identity changes and the correlation between them, expecting to help teachers inimproving graduate students’ English learning motivation and instructing them todevelop positive self-identities.In this study,130non-English-major graduate students from Shandong NormalUniversity were chosen to be the subjects. The students’ English learning motivationand self-identity changes were evaluated by means of questionnaire designed by Gao(2003a,2003b), in which66questions are included concerning motivation types,motivational intensity and self-identity changes. And then, SPSS17.0(StatisticalPackage for Social Sciences) was employed to analyze the data obtained from thequestionnaire. The present study is intended to find out1) the main type ofnon-English-major graduate students’ English learning motivation and thecharacteristics of their motivational intensity;2) whether non-English-majorstudents have experienced changes in self-identity after learning English as graduatestudents;3) whether there is positive correlation among motivation types, motivation intensity and self-identity changes of the non-English-major graduate students.4)Whether there is any difference between high and low motivational intensity group interms of motivation types and self-identity changes.The major findings are presented as follows:1) Personal development is the main type of motivation followed by requirementmotivation and immediate achievement. The motivational intensity of thenon-English-major graduate students is comparatively weak.2) Self-identity changes do exist in non-English-major graduate students, amongwhich, self-confidence change is the most obvious and important one. Zero changeranks the second.3) The hypothesis that motivation types, motivational intensity and self-identitychanges are correlated significantly is supported.4) There is no obvious difference in motivation types and self-identity changesbetween high and low motivational intensity group.Based on the above research, the author proposes some suggestions onstimulating non-English-major graduate students’ English learning motivation andinstructing them to develop positive self-identities. At last, the author puts forwardsome limitations of the present study and give suggestions for further study.