Studiesonmotivationofforeignlanguagelearning

1、1. IntroductionThere are many factors that affect foreign language learning, such as age,motivation attitude, personality intelligence and aptitude, of which motivation isconsidered to be one of the most important factors to foreign language learning.Motivationis so important that many foreign langu

2、age researchers have beenresearching on it in the last there decades. Robert carder Canadian psychologist is oneof the earliest representative researchers.Gardner and his colleagues and studentswent on investigating motivation as a major attribute in foreign language. GuiSchichun. A Chinese famous l

3、inguist also argues that motivation is one of the mostimportant socio-psychological factors to foreign language.China has the largest number of learners of English as a foreign language inthe world; their aims vary from person to person. It necessary and meaningful toconduct a research into them. In

4、 fact, learners should know why they study thelanguage. That is to say, they should understand what their real motivation is. Ofcourse, it is also important for the teachers to understand the motivations of students.Just as Oxford says:“ in case teachers do not know the motivations of students at al

5、l.How do they trigger their students? ”nevertheless, English teachers rarely pay anyattention to their students motivation in English learning. In our country, manyforeign language teachers even do not know what motivation is, let alone knowinghow to cultivate the motivation of their students. So th

6、is paper willexplore anddiscuss the cultivation of motivation in foreign language learning in terms of thedefinition of motivation, the importance of motivation in foreign language learning,and how to cultivate learners2. Literature Review2.1. Definition of motivation motivationinforeignlanguage lea

7、rning.There has been a considerable amount of research conducted on motivation inthe last few decades. However, there has been lack of a consensus with regard to itsexact meaning, and the term has come to be used in different ways by different people.Although scholars admit the importance of motivat

8、ion in language learning, so far,there has been no general agreement on the definition of motivation.Concepts of Motivation in General SenseWall says that “ motivationis perhaps the most obscure and difficultof alltheoretical issues in general and educational psychology.” The word of motivation isde

9、rived from the Latin term“ motivus ” which suggests the activatingf propertiesthe oprocesses involvedinpsychological motivationThe Gale Encyclopedia ofPsychology defines motivation as “ thedrive that produces goal-directed behavior.”Motivation is regarded as part of the influences that control the i

10、nitiation, direction,intensity, and persistence of behavior.Other scholars also explain what the motivation means in their own opinion.Motivation is“ a theoretical construct used to explain the initiation, direction, intensity,persistence, and quality of behavior, especially goal-directed behavior ”

11、Gardner.asserts that“ motivation is the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal oflearning the language plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language” . Pand Schunk think that“ motivationis the process whereby goal-directed activity isinstigated and sustained”.Williams and Bur

12、den define motivation according to social constructivistframework. In their opinion, motivation can be defined as “ a state of cognitive andemotional arousal, which leads to a conscious decision to act, and which gives rise toa period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in order to atta

13、in a previous setgoal or goals ” D?rnyei defines it as “ aprocess whereby a certain amount ofinstigation force arises, initiates action, and persists as long as no other force comesinto play to weaken it and thereby terminate action, or until the planned outcome hasbeen reached ”Motivation is a broa

14、d term involving many concepts. That is why manyterms created to define it, those definitions usually only partially cover what the termmotivation really implies. In spite of the difference in the definition of motivation, themeaning can be boiled down into three points: why people decide to do some

15、thing,how long they are willing to sustain the activity, how hard they are going to pursue2.2. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivationMotivation can be described in many types and the main broad categories areintrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a response to needs that existwithin

16、 the learner, such as curiosity, the need to know, and feelings of competence orgrowth. It exists when someone works because of an inner desire to accomplish a tasksuccessfully, whether it has some external value or not. In other word, students arewilling to learn the knowledge that is new and inter

17、esting in the purpose of fulfillingof their curiosity, the need to know and feeling of competence and growth that causeintrinsic motivation. Their purpose of learning is also the enjoyment of the learningprocess not for praise or rewards. Students with intrinsic motivation orientation studyEnglish o

18、n their own initiative and tend to prefer moderately challenging tasks. Thishas a great value and importance in learning, for the inward interest makes themself-starting and self-perpetuating and can keep the motivational machinery going fora long timeIn contrast, extrinsic motivation is as an outwa

19、rd force in the form ofexpectation, praise and rewards powers students in English learning. It exists whenindividuals are motivated by an outcome that is external or functionally unrelated tothe activity in which they are engaged. When students work hard to win their parentsfavor, gain teachers prai

20、se, or earn rewards such as pocket money, we can rightlyconclude that their motivation is primarily extrinsic, their reason for work and studylie primarily outside themselves and the aim of learning is not for the knowledge itselfbut the outward rewards in order to gain self-esteem. And the outward

21、praise andrewards encourage students to study more activelyBoth intrinsicand extrinsicmotivations are important, inseparable and complementary to each other in Englishlearning. Intrinsic motivation is the type of inner drive that propels students forwardand onward with continuous energy fueled by it

22、s own curiosity and interest. However,in the real world not all of the students are automatically energized to perform this orthat task, or to learn about this or that topic. Sometimes, a good grade, the threat offailing and praise move students from an inactive to an active state. The use ofrewards

23、 as extrinsic motivators has sometimes been found to increase intrinsicmotivation, especially when the rewards are contingent on the qualityof theperformance rather than simply on participationIt is clear that extrinsic motivators aresometimes necessary either 1 to get students started in the first

24、place, or 2 to startthem down a track that they might not know exists. However, overstressing the use ofextrinsic motivation can stifle intrinsic motivation.2.3. Studies on motivation of foreign language learningMany Europeans, i.e., Gardner, Brown, have preceded a quite high level ofmotivationresea

25、rch. They consider instrumental motivations are less importantfactors in predicting learning success,whereas it is quite contrary that instrumentalmotivations are the commonest among the college non-English majors. In China, a lotof researchers pay attention to learners motivation. The notion is acc

26、epted thatmotivation can lead to successful learning. Regarding with the primary motivation ofEnglish learning, teacher Zhou Liping and Shang Wu from Foreign School of Hu BeiUniversity expressed their opinion in the article ofAccording to their viewpoint,integrating teaching is more useful than mech

27、anical teaching in the formal teachingprocess. While, the reality is that learners have little interest in the culture of targetlanguage, or that they seldom have chance to communicate with people fromcountries of the target language. So the learners mainly learn English under theinfluence of mechan

28、ical motivation.Teacher Shi Baolin made his research on the learning motivation in differentterms according to time sequence. With the time going on, the learning goal of collegestudents changes relatively. However, such an analysis is a genetic one withoutconsidering about the environment and reali

29、ty. Not all of the students take passingCET4 as their learning goal at the beginning. In most situations, even if attending theentrance exams for postgraduate schools or entering foreign companies is the aim ofstudents after graduation, such goals indeed cause little affection on English learning.Su

30、ch a conclusion has no universality since there are too many tolerant conditions.Differently, teacher Zhou Liping and Shang Wu made the research from the goals oflearning English. They analyzed the different influence on the English learning indifferent environment. Though it seems that they gave th

31、e two motivations a suitablecircumstance, they over stressed the environment s effect on the learning motivationof English learners, withoutconsidering about the psychological situation andbackground of learners. Thus, their conclusion also possesses one-sidedness.3. The studyIn China, there are man

32、y researches on motivationin foreign languagelearning. Generally speaking, studies on learning motivation in China mainly focus onthe motivation types in Chinese students, or the relationship between motivation andthe learning strategies, learning results and self-identity. However, seldom researche

33、stouch the fieldof art students motivation. Since their language proficiency iscomparatively low at high school, there is an emergent need to investigate and initiatenon-English majors students motivation. Therefore, the author conducted this study.This research investigates non-English majorstudent

34、s' English learningmotivation from Chinese Language and Literature Class Two in The college ofLiteratureandJournalismandCommunicationinGanNanNormalUniversity.Questionnaires will be delivered to participants; 120 Questionnaires werehanded out to 120 students and 100 were returned. The main method

35、s used in thisresearch were the survey ofreferences on the problem oflanguage learningmotivation, programme of statistical data analysis SPSS statistical package for socialsciences. The percentages of each category of motivational variables were computedto describe the characteristics of nonEnglish-

36、 majors EFLotivationm.3.1 SubjectsThe third-year non-English majors have learned English for twoyears in GanNan Normal University. The level of their English learning should meetthe requirement of College English teaching. The total number of the subjects is 120third-year students of 06 Chinese Lang

37、uage and Literature Class Two in The collegeof Literature and Journalism and Communication in GanNan Normal University. 120hundred participants are non-English students in their first or second year. They arechosen because they are fulfilling their required English course. They must pass theexam eve

38、ry term and take the CET-4 in order to get a good job after graduation. Ittakes them about five minutes to finish the questionnaire.3.2 QuestionnaireThe questionnaire contains two parts. Table 1 presents the structure of thequestionnaire along with the number of items for each part and category. Par

39、t onegives blanks for personal information i.e., name, gender, . Part two can be furtherdivided into 4 categories of motivational variables. The first category is questionsabout intrinsic learning motivation. The second category is questions about extrinsiclearning motivation. The third category is

40、questions about intensity of learningmotivation. The fourth category is questions about attribution. Considering their levelof English, the questionnaire was presented in Chinese. The survey yielded a 83.3%response rate for a final sample of 100.Table1. Structure of the questionnaireContentsCategory

41、No. ofItemPart 1Personal detailsPart 2A. Intrinsic purposes 1.2.3.4.5B. Extrinsic purpose 6.7.8.9.10.11.12.13.14.15.16.17.18.19C. Intensity 20.21.22.23.24D. Attribution25.26.27.28.29.30.31.32.33.Each student was given a questionnaire during the break. The questionnaire wascompleted under the supervi

42、sion. Before giving out the investigation, they wereassured that their answers remained anonymous and had no relation with their finalscores. They were told to be as accurate and honest as possible since the success ofthe investigation depended upon their answers and they were required to complete t

43、hequestionnaire withinthe break for 20 minutes. No communication was allowedbetween students during the completion of the questionnaire in case that they wouldbe influenced by others opinions. After all thequestionnaire sheetswere collected,they were checked, sorted and numbered.3.3Data Collection a

44、nd Analysis3.3.1 Analyses on Table 2One's motivation source can be divided in to two types. One is intrinsicmotivation that is from one's own, the other is extrinsic motivation which is fromexternal factors. Table 2 presents the mean of the subjects responses to the firstcategory of motivati

45、on. As shown in the table, only 19% of them feel strongly agreethat they like English. However, 25% students showed that they donliket Englishstrongly. Question 2 shows that the tendency is they like English a little. As question 4shows, many students donliket English, but they know that English is

46、of greatimportance to them. Overall, their learning motivation of English is on the average.Table 2. Intrinsic purposesIntrinsic purposesStrongly disagree Disagree Neutral AgreeStrongly agree125%26%18%12%19%222%17%19%24%18%321%21%13%24%24%414%15%9% 17%45%514%9% 9%25%43%3.3.2 Analyses on table 3According to table 3, students English learning motivation is mainly stressedon widening their outlook, reading English books and passing exams. 68% stronglydisagree that the reason of studying English is they want to immigrate whi