A Study Of The Correlation Between L2 Motivational Self System And English Achievements Of Non-english-major Graduate Students

As one of the main factors that facilitate second or foreign language acquisition,motivation has received continuous attention since 1980 s.A new theory frame was put forward by D?rnyei in 2005 — L2 Motivational Self System(L2MSS),which consists of Ideal L2 Self(IL2S),Ought-to L2 Self(OL2S),and L2 Learning Experience(SLLE),providing novel theoretical support for L2 motivation research.According to previous studies,the English achievements of students vary greatly when their L2 MSSes are different.However,these studies focus more on the L2 MSS of undergraduate students.In China,non-English-major graduate students are expected to develop comprehensive language abilities in listening,speaking,reading and writing,etc,which can be shown through students? English achievements.Studies on the correlation between the L2 MSS and English achievements of non-English-Major graduate students will contribute to the in-depth studies on their L2 learning motivation,in the hope of improving their comprehensive abilities in English by stimulating their learning motivation.But up to now,there are fewer researches in this field.Given all this,quantitative research method is adopted in the present study under the new framework — D?rnyei?s L2 MSS to explore the correlation between L2 Motivational Self System and English achievements of non-English-major graduate students.The participants involved in this empirical study are 248 non-English-major graduate students from Shandong University and Shandong Normal University.The following three questions are to be addressed:(1)What is the general situation of the non-English-major graduate students? L2 motivational self system?(2)Is there any correlation between the L2 motivational self system and English achievements of the non-English-major graduate students?(3)Is there any pattern of the three components in L2 motivational self system among high,intermediate and low English achievers? If so,what are they?L2 Motivational Self Questionnaire(L2MSQ)was employed to investigate the participants? L2 MSS.Then the collected data were analyzed by the software SPSS 20.0 after the participants? English achievements in the national entrance examination for postgraduate(NEEP)had been acquired from the graduate schools.The major findings are as follows:(1)The L2 MSS of the non-English-major graduate students is above the average level.(2)The L2 MSS of the non-English-major graduate students has significant and positive correlation with their English achievements.(3)There is a pattern of the three components in L2 MSS among the high,intermediate and low English achievers.That is,as the students? English achievements go higher,the self dimension(IL2S and OL2S)makes more influence while SLLE makes less influence.On the basis of the findings,pedagogical implications are provided for the enhancement of language learners? L2 MSS in practical language teaching and learning.In the end,limitations of the present study are presented and some suggestions for further study are given.