An Investigation Of Non-English Major Undergraduates' Motivation For English Writing

English writing is one of the most important communication tools.English teachers have gradually begun to pay attention to the cultivation of students' English writing ability.In order to improve students' English writing ability,there must be a strong English writing motivation.Based on the Dornyei's(1994,2005)three-level motivation theory and L2 motivational self system theory,the author explores the general situation of non-English major undergraduates' English writing motivation,and the effect of gender,major and English proficiency on English writing motivation.330 non-English major undergraduates from a university in Jiangxi were selected as the participants.The English writing motivation questionnaire consists of 43 items concerning students' English writing motivation in the form of a five-point Likert scale.And the questionnaire includes seven dimensions:(1)IMP-Importance of writing;(2)IDS-What students want to become in writing(ideal L2 self);(3)OUS-What students think they ought to become in writing(ought-to L2 self);(4)IST-Interest in writing;(5)SFR-Self-regulation;(6)WEF-Writing efficacy;(7)CWC-Classroom writing context.In order to further understand the influence of university students' individual differences on their English writing motivation,the writer chose 12 students to be the interviewees.SPSS(20.0)is conducted to analyze the data of the questionnaire.The results of the study are as follows:Firstly,undergraduates' English writing motivation is at medium level.The students all know the importance of English writing,and all want to narrow the gap between the ideal L2 self and the real L2 self.Nevertheless,it is a common phenomenon that students' English writing efficacy is not good,their self-regulation is poor,and they are not interested in English writing.Secondly,results also show that there is a significant difference between male and female students.And female students' English writing motivation is significantly stronger than male students'.More specifically,compared with male students,female students are more interested in English writing,and female students' writing efficacy is better than male students'.Furthermore,there is a significant effect of major on English writing motivation.The English writing motivation of arts students are stronger than that of science students.The influence of major on English writing motivation is reflected in IMP dimension.Finally,English proficiency has also a significant influence on the English writing motivation.The students with high English level have strong motivation to write,and the students with low English level are relatively low in English writing motivation.The influence of English proficiency on the English writing motivation is mainly reflected in the three dimensions of IMP,WEF and CWC.The above results help university English teachers have a clearer understanding about students' English writing motivation,and have some inspiration and guidance for the teaching of English writing.Teachers should recognize the individual differences,and establish different requirements for different students.When arranging writing tasks,the task's difficulty should be moderate and the topic cannot be divorced from the real social life.In this way,most of the students will be interested in English writing,and it can improve their English writing motivation.