An Investigation Into The Relationship Between Learning Motivation And Perceived Social Support With English Major Students

As an international language,English is becoming increasingly influential globally.Therefore,mastering the English language is one of the essential competences that contemporary students must acquire.How to further arouse students’ passion for learning English and learn English effectively remains a major problem to be solved.In recent years,many experts and scholars have found that learning motivation can directly affect students’ enthusiasm to learn English.Therefore,it is necessary to study the learning motivation.At present,most studies have investigated the internal factors that affect learning motivation,while ignoring the influence of external factors such as teacher support,peer support and parent support on learning motivation.Therefore,this study took the Self-Determination Theory as theoretical basis and quantitatively examine the relationship between English major students’ learning motivation and their perception of social support.This study is intended to solve the following three questions:（1）What is the current situation of English major students’ English learning motivation and their perceived social support（academic and emotional support respectively from teachers,peers,and parents）in learning English?（2）What is the correlation between English major students’ perception of social support and their English learning motivation?（3）Which dimensions of social support are the significant predictive factor in explaining variance in students’ English learning motivation?There were 229 respondents of English majors in this study,of which 111 were higher vocational college students from vocational colleges,and 118 were undergraduates from universities.The survey was administered in the form of online questionnaires,and the scales were the English Learning Motivation Scale and the Perceived Social Support Scale.The research major findings are as follows:（1）English major students did not demonstrate strong learning motivation,though intrinsic regulation and identified regulation were relatively higher than other three types of regulation.Specifically,students learning English were mostly influenced by intrinsic regulations and identified regulations,and students were moderately motivated by external factors.In general,English major students’ English learning motivation needs to be further improved.Among the six dimensions of social support,the means of teachers’ emotional support perceived by English major students was the highest,while that the means of parents’ academic support was the lowest,and the means of emotional support is generally higher than that of academic support.（2）Teacher academic support,teacher emotional support,parent academic support,parent emotional support,peer academic support and peer emotional support were all positively correlated with English major students’ learning motivation;among them,parent academic support perceived by English major students was found the most strongly correlated with English major students’ learning motivation,followed by teacher academic support,and finally peer academic support.（3）Among the six dimensions of social support,parent academic support made the strongest contribution to explaining the variance in English learning motivation.Teacher academic support was also found substantially predictive of English learning motivation,especially in the intrinsic regulation,identified regulation and external regulation.Based on the research results,the author put forward relevant suggestions.English teachers should not only pay attention to students’ academic achievement in the teaching process,but also take care of students’ emotional needs.According to the differences of each student,stimulate their autonomous learning motivation and interest in learning,and thus improve their enthusiasm for learning English.Parents should change their traditional educational philosophy and provide their children with enough encouragement and recognition to build their confidence in learning,thereby strengthening their learning motivation to learn English.And parents should not ignore their academic support for their children.Parents tend to pay close attention to their children’s studies in middle school,but they ignore their children’s studies when they go to universities.This study deeply investigated the relationship between students’ English learning motivation and their perceived social support,provided research data evidence and theoretical significance for the study of English learning motivation.