Study on Motivational Factors in L2 Learning 英语论文.doc

study on motivational factors in l2 learningi. introduction motivation is one of the most important factors in language learning. prior researchers have done a lot. in the west, gardner and lambert are two of the most outstanding. in china some scholars such as qiufang wen and yongzhen shi also did some researches in the field. but most of these researches were done in the field of social psychology and couldnt give a comprehensive understanding of the role motivation plays. on the other hand, few studies have been done on the medical students. this study is to investigate how those variables affecting motivation interact each other in language learning and the differences between high achievers and low achievers. ii. research methodology 2.1 instruments instruments used in this study involved two english language proficiency tests: tem and cet (band 4), and a questionnaire. administering the questionnaire on efl learning for medical purposes collected the quantitative data. the qualitative part was used to supplement the former. reliability analysis of the questionnaire items was performed with spss, in which alpha = .6758. 2.2 subjects236 subjects from 14 intact classes in two universities in shijiazhuang and tangshan in march and april, 2003.the 236 subjects involved in the study were sophomores of non-english majors. among them there are 100 males and 136 females, whose ages ranging from 17 to 22 with an average of less than 20. these subjects were chosen from two medical universities in hebei, china. all of them took the national college english test band 4 (cet) at the beginning of 2003. these subjects had the similar experience of english learning in high school that made it possible for the research to make generalizations from the data. distribution of the subjects in terms of age and tem scoresmeanrangemedianminimummaximummodeage19.2519.5172220scores112.897196.5601311102.3 data collection and analysisto win the cooperation from the subjects and their teachers in data collection, universities and classes were specially chosen where the author has acquaintances. when the questionnaire was administered to a class, the english teacher of the class was invited to be present. before delivering, the teacher told the class about the survey and its purposes and asked the students to respond to the questionnaire seriously and honestly. they were also told that the survey was not involved in teachers evaluation of them and that all information about them would be highly confidential and used for research only.the questionnaire was made up of a three-page handout of questionnaire items.before the students answered the items, detailed instructions were given by the researcher on how to respond to the questionnaire so that the subjects knew clearly what they were expected to do. if they did not feel sure about some items, they could raise their hands to ask the researcher. during the questionnaire administration in each class, the researcher supervised subjects responding to the questionnaire. the questionnaire administration averaged about 35 minutes.the author examined the answers one by one when they were handed in. after being checked, sorted and rearranged for the convenience of future data analysis, the data was put into computer with spss (statistical package for social science for windows). then relative statistics were conducted.2.4 qualitative analysisthis part was to experiment with a small number of good and poor language learners concerning questionnaire measurements and the causes they responded to the questionnaire items. the subjects were asked to keep a record of their english learning activities and emotional response to them in one-week diaries. this qualitative part is used to 1) illuminate and supplement results from the survey, and 2) investigate the possible qualitative differences in motivational variables between high achievers and low achievers. 2.4.1 subjectsten subjects were selected for the study from one class of hebei medical university in shijiazhuang, five males and five females. and all of them are from the classes the author teaches. half of the subjects were from the top group, and half from the bottom group according to their scores on met and cet band four (given at the beginning of 2003). 2.4.2 instruments2.4.2.1 interviewthe interview was composed of four parts. first, personal information (name, class, education background and family background).then questions about their views on their performance in cet and their interest in english learning. for example, “how do you think of your english achievement?” “why do you think so?” “why do you like or dislike english learning?” “please say something about your interest in english culture.”the third part centered on the subjects view on self-efficacy, language anxiety, valence, learning purpose and goal-setting. in this part, some questions should be answered. for instance, “why do you think you can reach that point (listening, speaking, reading and writing) you mentioned in questionnaire?” “why do you think it is (/not) worthwhile learning english even it requires a large amount of expenditure in time and energy?” “how do you deal with problems of short-term purpose and long-term purpose?” “why do you feel anxious (/ not) in english class and in speaking english?”the last part was about motivational behavior. the subjects were asked to answer questions such as “do you feel like taking part in english activities?” “why?” “please give the reasons why you are attentive or absent-minded in english class.” and “do you think you are a hard worker in language learning? why or why not?”2.4.2.2 diaryall subjects were asked to write diaries for seven days. they could use chinese or english as they like. the subjects were told to note down all activities concerning english learning they were involved in those days. also they were asked to record the time.iii. findings and discussion3.1 findings the statistics obtained in the survey study suggested that all latent variables formed a network affecting motivational behavior when they were found to have impacts on it. l2 proficiency had indirect effect on motivational behavior through casual attribution, interest, self-efficacy, language anxiety and short-term purpose. controllable attribution was proved to be adaptive to efl learning because it implied a potential exertion of more time and energy in later learning. interest was found to enhance motivational levels by strongly influencing self-confidence and motivational behavior and moderate anxiety is good in english learning. those students with obvious goals may achieve better results. from the data analysis, we see that learners motivational level depends on the whole system of motivational variables rather than on a single variable or several variables in isolation. and also there are big differences between high achievers and low achievers. generally speaking, high achievers have a definite purpose and they can manage their time better. although they also feel anxiety, they can turn it into drive. most low achievers dont have a definite purpose and manage themselves and their time very badly. some of them just drift on. when the time to take exam is coming, they are discouraged. this trend will lead them to next failure.3.2 limitationslike all other studies, there are limitations in this study. the first one is the sample. the samples are the subjects from hebei province. and they were all sophomores who may not represent all students in china. the second one is the instrument cet. it excludes a test of speaking and there are too much objective questions in the test. on the other hand, the scores used in this study are only the sum of scores rather than individual score on each part. so we cant go further in measuring the subjects english proficiency. the third problem is about the reliability of questionnaire. some subjects might flatter the investigation in responding to the questionnaire or choose the opposite items on purpose. the last one is that although this study discussed the relationships among variables and the effects each variable inserts on outcomes, to what degree they affect each other remains to be further studied.3.3 suggestions for future research1. if permitted, the samples may be chosen from different grades and a longitudinal research may be more fruitful.2. due to the localization of this study, further study may be conducted to explore the degree different variables affect each other.references:1. bernard spolsky. conditions for second language learning. shanghai foreign language education press. 2000.2. clement. r.rc gardner& p.c. smythe. motivational variables in second language acquisition: a study of francophones learning english. canadian journal of behavioral science, 9:123-133, 1977.3. dirnyei z. motivation in language planning and language policy. multilingual matters ltd, 1999.4. gardner,r.c. second language learning in adults; correlates of pry. applied language learning, 2:1-28, 1992.5. gardner r.c. the socio-educational model of second language learning: assumptions, findings, and issue. language learning, 38:101-126, 1988.6. hanoch mccarty& frank siccone. motivating your students. allyn and bacon. kan shi, peng wang, wenzhong wang,