Exploring Motivation And Experience Of Adult English Language Learning

A considerable number of internal migrants come to Shanghai to search for opportunities recently.Confronted with the fierce competition,many of them choose to buy English courses from private language training agencies with the expectation that they can be well-equipped for better living and working in Shanghai through English language learning,which engenders the social context of the thesis.This thesis attempts to explore adult English language learning in private language training agencies with the case of internal migrant workers in Shanghai.This research took place at a private English training agency in Songjiang district,located in the south-west of Shanghai,where some of internal migrant workers are invited as my research participants.Several dozens of English learners in that agency participated in the questionnaire investigation to reveal their background information and general motivations.Moreover,based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with three focal participants' experience and motivation,this thesis aims to analyze the complexities in the adults' English learning experience and motivation.Cultural capital and social capital introduced by Bourdieu(1986)are capitalized on to interpret the collected data.Findings suggest that the association of English with cultural capital and social capital plays an essential role in inspiring internal migrant workers to learn English,and the discursive construction of English as valuable capital by private language training agencies also pushes workers into English language learning.Besides,“life enrichment” is highlighted among internal migrants as their expectation.However,in reality,their English language learning experience is complicated,in which the lack of economic capital is always presented as an obstacle for many low-wage workers.The accumulation of social capital and cultural capital generated from English language learning is not easy for them.This thesis argues that English education in the national education system and English training in private language training agencies cooperate with each other to contribute to English education in the life-long learning society.This thesis is hopedto assist both adult learners and private language training agencies in understanding English language learning motivations and experience so that they can be well-prepared to overcome some potential challenges,and improve efficiency and effectiveness of adult English language learning.