| The acceleration of social pluralism and globalization has put English on the increasingly important position in education.Experts and scholars are also expanding the depth and breadth of research on college English.At the same time,the great influence of individual' differences on learning and teaching makes motivation as a key factor to be endowed with greater researching value.Motivation is the intrinsic impetus to individual.Low motivation or even absence of motivation may lead to the resistance of learning,which further affect the improvement of the language proficiency.Throughout the domestic and foreign theory and framework of motivation,self-determination theory,put forward by two American psychologists,Deci and Ryan,from the perspective of learners,interprets learning motivation reasonably and completely,paying more attention to learner's self-determination and autonomy.The theory,based on self-determined degree,divides motivation into amotivation,controlled motives and autonomous motivation.And under certain condition,controlled motivation can be internalized into autonomous motivation.Its theoretical characteristics are of great significance to university education,especially English learning and teaching.However,in the literature review on motivation,the author finds that there is the lack of research on the relationship between autonomous motivation,controlled motivation and learners' English proficiency.Therefore,in order to improve college students' foreign language proficiency in our country,this thesis,from the perspective of self-determination theory,investigates the present situation of English learning motivation,and the relationship between autonomous motivation,controlled motivation and English language proficiency.The research focuses on three questions: 1)What's the present situation of non-English major college students' autonomous motivation and controlled motivation in their English learning? To what extent do students of different English proficiency levels show differences in autonomous motivation and controlled motivation? 2)What is the correlation between autonomous motivation,controlled motivation,and English proficiency? 3)In what way do autonomous motivation and controlled motivation exert influence on English proficiency?The present study adopts questionnaire designed by Gao Yihong,Zhao Yuan,Cheng Ying,Zhou Yan(2003)and CET score as the research instruments.The collected data are processed with SPSS 20 for Descriptive Statistics,One-way ANOVA,Pearson Correlation Analysis and Multiple regression analysis.The results are presented as follows.(1)The autonomous motivation and controlled motivation of English learning in non-English majors college students fall in moderate level(autonomous motivation<controlled motivation).Personal development motivation(in high level)> information media(in moderate level)> internal interest(in moderate level)>going abroad(in moderate level).In controlled motivation,achievement(in high level)>social responsibility(in moderate level)>learning situation(in moderate level).There are significant differences in high,middle and low proficiency groups in the overall autonomous motivation(especially in internal interest,going abroad),and the high and middle proficiency group are higher than the lower proficiency group.In controlled motivation,there is no significant difference among the three groups.But,in going abroad,the low proficiency group is significantly higher than the high and middle proficiency group.(2)The results present a significant positive correlation between autonomous motivation and English proficiency,but a negative correlation between controlled motivation and English proficiency.(a)There is a significant positive correlation between internal interest,going abroad,personal development and English proficiency.However,the correlation between information media and English proficiency is not obvious.(b)A significant negative correlation is revealed between achievement and English proficiency.But there is no obvious correlation between learning situation,social responsibility and English proficiency.(3)Autonomous motivation and controlled motivation are both direct predictors of English proficiency.Autonomous motivation imposes the positive predictive effect on English proficiency,while controlled motivation exerts the negative one.(a)Internal interest,going abroad and information media are all the direct predictors of English proficiency.Internal interest and going abroad have the positive predictive effects on English proficiency,while information media imposes the negative predictive effects on it.However,personal development can't be the predictor of English proficiency.(b)Achievement directly and negatively predicts English proficiency,but social responsibility and learning situation neither can be the predictor of English proficiency.It is hoped that this study will help that learners themselves and college English teachers attach importance to English learning motivation,measure and evaluate learners' holding and lacking motivation effectively.Teachers should adopt corresponding teaching methods in order to stimulate students of different English proficiency to acquire more abundant and lasting English learning motivation.Especially,for students of low proficiency,teachers should pay attention to enhancing their intrinsic interest in English learning,and appropriately reduce achievement orientation,to avoid excessive academic pressure on them,which can lead to learning aversion.On the contrary,for students of middle and high proficiency,it is necessary to reinforce students' interest in English and encourage and support them to explore more interests,and conduct reasonable guidance on going abroad.To sum up,providing students with the support of the external environment for internalization and strengthening autonomous motivation of English learning both can better promote autonomous learning,to improve English proficiency step by step. |
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